Why Is the Republican Field So Extreme? (Read 2137 times)

Scout7


    I have some thoughts on defense spending.

     

    1) Remove the combat arms units from the National Guard, and move them to the Reserve system.

    2) Change the training.  Place more emphasis on combat and survivability training.

    3) Start reducing the number of Combat Service Support jobs.  This part is tricky, because it means more training for the troops, and possibly affects procurement of existing and new equipment.  Some of the stuff we have is just unnecessary or too complex to be truly robust at this time, so we need greater numbers of maintenance and repair people.

     

    I have other thoughts, but they would never get enacted because they require wholesale changes to how we view our role in society.


    A Saucy Wench

        I believe that most people should be personally responsible for their own retirement planning.  However, realistically, once SS takes 6% of your income (more if you are self-employed) how much does the Average Joe have left to save for themselves?  The gov't takes it and gives a crappy return (really none) for growth.  So in their effort to "guarantee a safety net" the effectively make a lot of people dependent on them who otherwise could save for themselves.

       

       

      Maybe this has already been mentioned but contributions to SS are capped at a lower wage than benefits are.  Meaning someone who earns 250K a year will pay the same amount IN to SS but receive 7-9% more in monthly benefits than someone making the current cap of $110K. 

      I have become Death, the destroyer of electronic gadgets

       

      "When I got too tired to run anymore I just pretended I wasnt tired and kept running anyway" - dd, age 7


      Hey, nice marmot!

         

        Defense is easier.  Cut it.  Stop pretending this is WWII and we need to be able to occupy and hold two foreign countries simultaneously.  We were in Iraq nearly a decade and it may still fail.  We've been in Afghanistan a decade and there is no end in sight where we can say we did what we set out to do there.  It takes large amounts of troops, gear and money to occupy foreign countries.  Often more strategic resources can isolate a regime/country enough to neutralize a threat with far less investment (Libya, special forces efforts, etc).

         

         

         

         

        Might not be as easy as all that.  Interesting article from the wall street journal:  Why the World Needs America

        Ben

         

        "The world is my country, science is my religion."-- Christiaan Huygens

          I'm OK with steps to raise revenue (like raising the salary cap), but I'd insist they also either trim back the breadth of things that qualify for a payout, develop a phase-out scale for people who do NOT need OAB as any kind of safety net, and make benefits taxable sooner in proportion to total income.

           

          If they'd just run it leaner (like every individual and private business in America is doing), I'd not complain about paying so much into it.

          "I want you to pray as if everything depends on it, but I want you to prepare yourself as if everything depends on you."

          -- Dick LeBeau

          L Train


            What about removing the $106,800 income ceiling for SS taxes, or at least raising it?

             

            Those people will be unlikely to ever get those contributions back.  You may as well just raise income tax rates and keep it out of the SS system. 

             

              Those people will be unlikely to ever get those contributions back.

               

              Why not?

              Runners run

              L Train


                Because like Spaniel alluded to when he said he'd rather do without rather than deny someone in need, my guess is that there will be some sort of income or means test when applying for benefits in the future in order to make the system sustainable. 

                 


                Feeling the growl again

                  Might not be as easy as all that.  Interesting article from the wall street journal:  Why the World Needs America

                   

                  Screw the World.  We have the bombs and TanyaS has her finger on the button.

                   

                  Besides, scaling back spending and changing our strategy by which we exert our influence and look after our interests, is a very different thing than walking away from them.

                  "If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does.  There's your pep talk for today.  Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

                   

                  I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills

                   


                  Feeling the growl again

                    Because like Spaniel alluded to when he said he'd rather do without rather than deny someone in need, my guess is that there will be some sort of income or means test when applying for benefits in the future in order to make the system sustainable. 

                     

                    There should be.  We already pay taxes we don't get back in services, why should this one be any different?  It's not like the gov't put our money away for us in an account to grow until we retired (wouldn't that have been insightful), they spend it as it comes in.  Current workers are paying for retired ones, which is why the baby boomer retirement surge will be such a strain on the system.

                     

                    Frankly I don't even look at those SS statements they send us.  I think that either a) the system will not be there in its current form by the time I retire, or b) it will be modified to the point where unless I royally screw up between now and then I won't qualify for it.

                    "If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does.  There's your pep talk for today.  Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

                     

                    I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills

                     

                    MrH


                      Might not be as easy as all that.  Interesting article from the wall street journal:  Why the World Needs America

                       

                      It's at least a matter of degree.

                       

                      How many foreign bases do we need?

                       

                      How many F-35s are required? We planned to purchase 2,400 at a cost of something like $135M per aircraft. In a world of drones, cruise missiles etc. how much would national security be compromised by 'only 1200'. Or even 120?

                      The process is the goal.

                      Men heap together the mistakes of their lives, and create a monster they call Destiny.

                        Because like Spaniel alluded to when he said he'd rather do without rather than deny someone in need, my guess is that there will be some sort of income or means test when applying for benefits in the future in order to make the system sustainable. 

                         

                        But as of today there is not.  So someone retiring today who made an average of $250k a year for the last 30 years before retirement will be entitled to more benefits than someone who made $106k (adjusted) a year for the last 30 years, even though they paid the same amount in.

                         

                        It's goofy.  The tax is regressive while the payout is progressive.  It's perfectly designed to go insolvent.

                        Runners run


                        Feeling the growl again

                           It's perfectly designed to go insolvent.

                           

                          The story is my great-grandmother paid in for less than a year, then collected for over 20.  The stupidity reaches far back.

                          "If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does.  There's your pep talk for today.  Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

                           

                          I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills

                           

                            The F-35s are social security for the Lockheed Stock holders


                            Menace to Sobriety

                              The story is my great-grandmother paid in for less than a year, then collected for over 20.  The stupidity reaches far back.

                               

                               The fact is my dad paid in his entire life and dropped dead at 61 before recieving a dime, but I don't think focusing on outliers will lead to constructive solutions.

                              Janie, today I quit my job. And then I told my boss to go f*** himself, and then I blackmailed him for almost sixty thousand dollars. Pass the asparagus.

                                 The fact is my dad paid in his entire life and dropped dead at 61 before recieving a dime, but I don't think focusing on outliers will lead to constructive solutions.

                                 

                                I don't think its quite an outlier when there was a generation at retirement age in 1936 that had the same thing as Spaniel described.

                                 

                                The issue that I think he was trying to point out was that that generation received benefits without contributing, meaning that they were funded by the next generation.

                                 

                                The design of Social Security was flawed from its origin.

                                Life Goals:

                                #1: Do what I can do

                                #2: Enjoy life