Romney's View on Social Security

Jamie Nelson

November 25, 2012

American Government

Essay 1

Romney's View on Social Security

The Social Security act was signed in August 1935 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Thus began the government funded program Social Security. Social security was the answer for Americans under tough financial times after the Great Depression. The act gave elder citizens a way to get money when it became too hard for them to work. At age 65 and older citizens will have the ability to continue to receive an income in their life after the workforce. Social Security was later extended to help the lives of many other Americans including kids who have lost parents and people who become disabilities and are unable to work. These days after the baby boomers has left the amount of retirees at an all-time high and is costing the government millions of dollars. Also the lack of jobs for the young Americans entering the working world, Immigrants allowed to draw social security without working in the proper way to pay into the system, and the rising amount of senior citizens on social security and also the lack of jobs for citizens, with that the input of money is not matching the amount going out. Social Security is the prime source income for millions of Americans old and young. Social Security has different purposes. Currently there are four different types of Social Security benefits, which are based on what was earned during employment. The first one is retirement; this allows Americans at age of 62 can receive a small fraction of the individual's retirement benefits. Once the individual reaches the age of 65 the American worker is eligible to receive their full retirement benefits. Dependents benefits are for the spouse of a retired or disabled worker eligible for retirement or disability benefits, disability, dependents and survivors benefits. The retirement benefits are for workers employed for a set number of years. The amount of benefits depends on how much the worker made while working. Survivor benefits include disability benefits are available to surviving spouses of an eligible worker that can receive Social Security.

Immigrants receive more services than they pay in taxes. Although some immigrants do pay taxes and some don't, but in comparison if the same job was done by an American worker the taxes collected would be much higher. In Social Security it is estimated that if Americans did the jobs held by illegal aliens, they would pay about 5 times as much in SSI taxes on average. With that Social Security would actually pay out fewer offers fewer services. Although these Americans will still collect their Social Security retirement benefits, but in comparison the illegal immigrant will payless if at all into the Social Security fund and but will receive the same amount of benefits as the American doing the same job and having to pay into the social security system.

According to the FBI 62% of illegal aliens work for under the table cash and pay no taxes. It is found that about 58% of welfare checks are paid out to illegal immigrants. This is a huge hit to the Social Security system because this causes the system to dole out 2xs the amount of money that was collected by the people who pay in.

Another issue plaguing the social security system is how the life expectancy is been escalating at a rapid pace. It has been reported that in 1940 it was projected that a 65 year old man would on average be expected to live 12 years after retirement, In 1997 the average 65 year old retired man lived an extra 15 years, and it is projected that by 2040 the average lifespan of the average retiree will have increased further to 17 years (Bartlett). Although the rate of children being born has fallen from the 3.6 children per woman in 1960 to just 2 in 1997 and is projected that by 2020 on average woman will only have 1.9 kids (Bartlett). The rate of kids needed to keep the social insurance around 2.1 needed just to replace the existing population (Bartlett). In the long run this hurts the amount of people that will be paying into the Social security system in the future and as the rate of children being born goes down and the amount of people retiring doubles over the amount or people paying in. The population of retirees is projected to rise from 12 percent in 1997 to 20 percent by 2050, increasing the number of retirees from 34 million to 80 million (Bartlett). The smaller working-age population and larger elderly population means that where there were more than five workers for each retiree in 1960 and 3.3 workers per retiree today, by 2030 there will be just two workers to pay the taxes for the benefits of each retiree(Bartlett). Currently there is more people collecting unemployment than there are paying in. With the fall of the economy and the rapid increase of 65 year olds collecting their retirement and jobs condensing and not recycling threw for new employees. Something has to be done.

Romney has proposed that we reduce the massive loss of money to the unbalanced social security system. "Reduce the federal workforce by 10 percent through attrition, align federal employee compensation with the private sector, and repeal the Davis-Bacon Act, which, according to Romney, "forces the government to pay above-market wages, insulating labor unions from competition and driving up project costs by approximately 10 percent (Knickerbocker)." With this plan Romney has demonstraghted the reducing the money that spends on over paid wages and can be turned around and used to help fund government funded aid.

Romeny's points enclude that Federal workers receive health insurance and, retirement health benefit. Workers receive high pay for mundane jobs and we need adequate workers in federal jobs and also fewer workers doing more work so there is less down time for workers to have ideal hands. The governments are one of the highest paid employers outside of professional sports. The reduction of federal pay and jobs would encourage more turnovers in the currently very static federal workforce. That would get more young and energetic people in government and save money. Romney believes that the stock market crash in 2008 hurt Romney's view of the security of investing retirement funds in the stock market, but he still supports privatization of retirement.

Another point Romey brings to the table is the big question of when dealing with the privatizing of social security is where it leaves the minority groups. All minorities are affected, but the African Americans are most likely the ones that will need to deal with it most. Indeed the president is doing that entire he can so that African Americans and other