Community Panel/Q&A on Social Security Monday, 10:30 a.m.
by jhwygirl
With Social Security celebrating its 75th anniversary, people here in Missoula have the opportunity to participate in a community forum designed to bring a myriad of state and community leaders – and the general public – together to discuss the issues facing Social Security.
On Monday, at 10:30 a.m. in city council chambers, located at 140 W. Pine Street, Mayor John Engen will join with former U.S. Senator John Melcher and U.S. Representative Pat Williams to lead a panel discussion on Social Security, along with a list of numerous community leaders, including:
State Senator Dave Wanzenried
Mike Mayer, Summit Independent Living
Paul Meyer, Western Montana Rehabilitation
Jack Chambers, Opportunity Resources
Susan Kohler, Missoula Aging Services
Mark Anderlik, Missoula Central Labor Council and
Cris Volinkaty, Child Development Center
The format will be a panel discussion with plenty of opportunity afterwards for a question and answer period to the panel participants.
I’m hoping to be able to make it, but my schedule is pretty tight – but the attendees on the tentative list are impressive and I know that organizers have been working to bring in those with conservative viewpoints.
Dave Budge, are you reading?
Because I doubt I’ll be able to make it, I really hope MCAT is able to cover it. It’s an important issue and as the Obama Administration begins the discussion to look for solutions, it’s important for communities around the U.S. to be involved in offering their viewpoints and suggestions.
For a primer on what Social Security means for Montana, read this report, titled Social Security Works for Montana.
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August 29, 2010 at 9:58 pm
ah, social security, the crown jewel of the social safety net for the american workforce who pay into this economic system.
yet many in my generation cynically scoff at the mere concept of seeing any kind of pay out from our national payees. that’s how well the social security “crisis” has been packaged and sold to us.
i wish i could attend tomorrows little listening session. i hope there are some decent questions asked of the panel. i doubt anyone will point out that the current administration has signaled cuts to entitlements are fair game while war spending is sacred and untouchable.
in browsing around for five minutes, i ran across this piece by allen smith. here’s a snip:
yeah, i think folks are waking up to a whole mess of deferred problems that got papered over decades ago.
the crisis of social security is actually the crisis of wall street. housing popped and derivatives poisoned the global system and our foreign creditors are getting jumpy. with the stimulus running out and the fed backing off, the heart of the economy, consumer spending, is flatlining.
they are using the language of crisis to justify looting one of the last big pools they can get access to. under bush they couldn’t do it. will the rebranding of their efforts be successful this time around?
August 31, 2010 at 3:21 am
Why even bother… By the time I’m ready to retire… What a quant thought… Social security will be long gone. We could easily cut spending elsewhere to offset the cost of social security, but I think deep down inside all of us we now that long after all social programs are cut in this country the only thing the federal government will be involved in is debt financing, defense spending, and building highways.
August 31, 2010 at 7:36 am
Sadly, after hope and change was derailed by corporate lobby power over our congress, young people have become apathetic.
I don’t blame them.most of them now believe in voting as much as they believe in social security’s ability to survive to their retirement.
Poor leadership and corruption feeds their apathy. We give them little to believe in while policies continue to enlarge the growing gap between rich and poor.
August 31, 2010 at 10:13 am
I wouldn’t say that I’ve lost all hope… Just any hope I once had in the authenticity of top tier national politics. I am apathetic now when it comes to voting for senators and the president… And I would venture to say a lot of people from the millennial generation have become cynical and turned away from politics because of the disappointment of Obama’s presidency.
On the other hand… I work daily at the local level to contribute to what I feel like are important issues… Where change really does still have a chance of taking hold.
August 31, 2010 at 4:46 pm
you mean change like this, car free!
http://missoulanews.bigskypress.com/missoula/cap-the-rate-campaign-kick-off-rally/Event?oid=1293075
thank god for citizen’s initiatives!
August 30, 2010 at 6:50 am
Democrats are now taking a shot at Social Security, as Republicans failed.
The important question to ask the panelists is this: Do they, or do they not, intend to honor the deal we struck in 1983 wherein we allowed the government to raise our taxes to very high levels to build up a trust fund to pay our benefits for the next thirty years.
If they hem and haw, say we can’t afford it, talk about sustainability or whatever, then the answer is “no”, and there is no more to learn.
August 30, 2010 at 7:05 am
It sounds like the same old group of special interests to me.
Social security needs to be treated as income tax and applied to all income, and in a progressive manner.
Payouts need to be means tested.
Medicare, ditto.
It’s been kiting between generations bullshit for decades, and now that the pyramid is about to collapse, well, we need to call a spade a spade.
The single mother waiting tables should stop paying old people to take trips to Europe.
August 30, 2010 at 7:50 am
I think the program far less a pyramid than, say, defense spending or tax cuts – that is, it is far more sustainable. And yet the doomsday forecasting is applied only against SS.
A minor adjustment, merely lifting the cap, would preserve the program in perpetuity.
Anyway, you make good points, and I agree except on the idea of means-testing. I tend to think that the benefits ought to go to all who pay in, and that they should not be taxed, as they are now.
August 30, 2010 at 12:48 pm
Definitely on the whole “government spending” issue. When will we apply “sustainable” to “government spending”?