Obama endorses Social Security expansion

[Indy Texas]

Put it in a lockbox, put money back that we've taken out. Don't expand it, and don't give anyone any money they didn't put in.

If you're going to do that, you might as well just replace it with a "forced savings" scheme - the government takes the money out of your paycheck but it goes into your IRA and you can invest it how you wish but you aren't allowed to take it out until retirement.

[Indy Texas]

What if we simply get the federal government out of the pension business altogether and say that if your private savings do not provide enough income to live on in retirement, the government will make up the difference up to the poverty line with what would essentially be an AFDC/TANF program but with no time limits or work requirements or other strings attached?

I'd imagine we'd think very differently about "welfare" as a society if 99% of us were on "welfare" at some point in our lives.

[Indy Texas]

The other problem with it is that the poverty line is incredibly perversely defined and not really close to an actual living income.

Then increasing it to something more realistic is a good starting point.

[Indy Texas]

I wish we could find a way to just get rid of the employer portion altogether, if not the employee payroll tax also.  It's got to be the worst possible tax in terms of job creation and wage increases.

Just replace the employee portion with a higher income tax and the employer portion with a higher capital gains tax.