Written by Ron Rabatsky   

Social Security.

We are supportive of four changes to the Social Security program. The first is means testing. Beyond a certain net worth, the wealthy do not need Social Security as a safety net in their retirement.

Secondly, we insist that the Trust be made whole by including in the Budget a requirement that the Trust’s money (which the Government has repeatedly borrowed to cover other programs and is supposedly collecting interest) has its funds returned to the control of the Trust--with accrued interest--over a 20 year period so that when the Trust is due to potentially reduce payments it is once again whole so that all funds are there to pay eligible recipients their full payments.

Third, we want adjust the payroll cap on FICA, currently capped at $106,800. There should not be any FICA contributions for income between $106,800 (or the base level that is reset every year by mathematical formula) and $250,000. This maintains President Obama’s pledge to not raise taxes on incomes less than $250,000. Once an individual’s income reaches $250,000 the FICA tax will again be charged, but not retroactively. While we cannot find any hard numbers from any congressional research to determine how much capital this will add to the Trust, there is general agreement that this will fix the Trust’s potential for less than full solvency. There is another side to this which claims that this will hurt the economy by making it more difficult for businesses to compete with this added expense, or that it taxes the wealthy. But with the changes to the tax code, these businesses and wealthy individuals will still be paying far less in taxes than they are today. Besides, we know too well that reducing taxes for the uber-wealthy is a proven abject failure at creating jobs.

We reject raising the age of qualifying for Social Security because of the difficulty of those over 62 years old to be able to find and perform a job. As Social Security now stands, the longer one waits to start collecting it, the more they collect each month, so there is still a great incentive for those who can keep working, to keep working. The requirement to start collecting one’s Social Security by the age of 70 should be eliminated. For those who don’t want to collect it yet, why force it on them?

Fourth, we need to increase the amount of money that a Social Security recipient can earn at a part-time job. Benefits are not that high, although the ability to make some part time income might actually save us some money from means testing. But in most cases it will just improve the quality of life for our Senior Citizens.

It is notable that Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI), after the passing of his father, received Social Security from the ages of 16-18. As he was from a wealthy-enough family, he did not need these death benefit payments to make ends meet until he turned 18 (ref: U.S. News and World Report), so he saved this money to pay for his college education. Why do we want to tell others in similar situations that it was okay for the author of the radical Ryandontcare plan, but not for them? This is not the degree of fairness we expect from our government.
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Benton Harbor is a city we talked about in my Article #3 about Human Rights. I have a couple of minor corrections to make, and a huge suggestion for the duly elected officials of Benton Harbor.

In my original article I noted that the per capita debt of residents of Benton harbor was about $600. In fact, it is only $379/person, making the Governor's solution that much more egregious. It demonstrates even more the racism that is at work against Benton Harbor by The State of Michigan and by Whirlpool.

I have a couple of suggestions to make to the elected authorities in Benton Harbor. First and foremost, find a foreign company that competes with Whirlpool that is looking for production in the United States. Explain that you have many trained workers ready to go to work for a new company that will be more responsible to its workers and to the city. I would not hesitate to give them more information about why you are looking for such a particular type of factory. I would strongly suggest contacting Haier corporation, in Qindao, China. They re the largest manufacturers of appliances in China, and might well be enamored with an easy opportunity to open new manufacturing facitilties with experienced workers.

Secondly, to protect your waterfront from development by Whirlpool, post armed police on the site 24/7. You can always hire extra volunteer deputies from your populace. This will let Whirlpool know that if they want to steal your land for their development, they re going to have a battle on their hands. Do they really want to alienate black consumers everywhere by getting into a fight with Benton Harbor? But be careful not to shoot anyone.

Third, don't count on TV reporters to uncover your situation and report on it. Get aggressive. Hire a Perception Management team to go out and get on the talk shows and talk about what the governor is doing to your city. Instill fear in small cities all around the country that they could be next. And make as many references to Whirlpool as possible as their PR department is not going to want to deal with this.

Last, organize a public demonstration for July 4th. Let the media know about it, and let them know that you will make it easy for them to set up and brroadcast from Benton Harbor. The point of the demonstrations is the preservation of one of the foundations of American policy--Taxation without Representation is tyranny. Call out the governor as tyrannical as many times as possible. Get Al Sharpton and other black and white protectors of human rights to appear and give speeches.