#288
By Hank Silverberg
The Third Rail
If you follow train technology you will know the "third rail" is a semi-continuous rigid conductor alongside the tracks that carries electricity to power the train. Step on it in the wrong place and you will be electrocuted.
In the old days, when we still had a functional Congress, any talk of cutting Social Security or Medicare, or not funding it, was considered a political third rail--or political suicide.
Apparently that is not the case any more.
This week, House Speaker Mike Johnson talked about possible cuts in both programs, and didn't seem to worry about the political fallout.
It's true the Social Security Trust Fund is running out of money. That's the fund all the money deducted from your paycheck for Social Security, and a similar one for Medicare, is supposed to go, to make sure the money is there when it's your turn to collect.
We need to clarify for Congress, and particularly the GOP, that neither program is a handout. They are not "unneeded social programs". Both are insurance policies that we signed up for when we started working. We have been paying premiums on that policy every payday. Right now that's about 6.2% of your paycheck.
When the government takes that money out of our paychecks it is agreeing to a contract to provide Social Security and Medicare payments once we reach retirement age. That age has changed a few times. It's 66 for most Baby Boomers right now, and some of the Gen Xers may have to wait until they are 67.
But if you have been following the Social Security saga over the last few years, you know that the Social Security Trust Fund is running out of money, mainly because Congress broke the rules and took money out for other things without replenishing the fund later on. And they have been kicking the can down the road on this issue for decades. Al Gore spent a lot of time in the 2000 presidential campaign talking about a "lock box" for that money, but nobody listened and he was ridiculed for using the term.
Currently that trust fund, unless it is enhanced somehow, will run out of money in 2035 and that will force a cut in benefits. Sixty-eight million Americans received Social Security benefits in 2023 amounting to $1.5 trillion. For many of them, that monthly check is the only thing keeping them from devastating poverty.
So what should Congress do?
There are three options:
1)Increase the revenue with a permanent payroll tax rate increase of 3.3% lowering every worker's take home pay. That seems like a reasonable idea even though there are fewer workers across America paying into the fund. (It will also surely produce screams from Gen Xers and Millenials.)
2) Reducing everyone's benefit by 21%,which would surely produce a hardship for many senior citizens.
3) Reducing the benefits for all new beneficiaries by 25% (reasonable but hard to sell to those who are just entering their 50's or 60's and had been planning on full benefits).
None of these are a good option, and all of them are a third rail with the voters.
President Biden has suggested another way to extend Social Security solvency: raising the taxable maximum cap on higher income earners, which would also get substantial opposition.
Medicare is in a similar situation, though money taken from the general revenue stream has always been used to supplement premiums collected through payroll deduction or Social Security checks.
It's a real mess.
But cuts of any kind would be a real disaster for those of us who use both plans and are expecting to be covered AS PROMISED by both programs.
If you are a Gen Xer, a Millennial or Gen Z, I can offer only some advice. Save for retirement and health care now. The Baby Boomers are getting what we were promised and what we earned. I'm not so sure you will.
The third rail has been shut off.
News You May Have Missed!
The Final Frontier: Science!
There's a signal coming to Earth from 15 billion miles away. No, it's not an extraterrestrial. It's a rebirth of sorts for Voyager 1, a NASA space probe that was launched 46 years ago in 1977. The space agency had lost touch with Voyager 1 back in November of 2023, even though mission controllers could tell the spacecraft was still receiving their commands.
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| (Voyager 1, courtesy NASA) |
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory now says the issue was tied to one of three on-board computers that was responsible for packaging the science and engineering data before it was sent back to Earth. The problem was a malfunction of a single chip that was storing part of the probe's memory. The chip cannot be fixed, but the JPL team decided they could move the affected code elsewhere in the computer's memory in sections, since there was no single location large enough to hold all the code necessary.
They did that on April 18th and they heard back from the spacecraft on April 20th.
During the next few weeks they are going to relocate other affected areas of the computer, including the portions that will allow the probe to return data. And then they may be able to see what Voyager was doing for the last five months.
Voyager 1's twin sister, Voyager 2, launched about the same time, is still operating normally and is now 12 billion miles from Earth.
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-voyager-1-resumes-sending-engineering-updates-to-earth
The Final Frontier: Speculation!
Are there aliens among us living as humans? Could they be living underground or under our oceans?
That bit of speculation is included in a research paper from the Harvard University Human Flourishing Program. It has since been taken down from the ResearchGate since the story was first published in Newsweek.
The study suggests that life forms from other worlds could be living underground on Earth or within the Moon. It also suggests many of the UFO's or UAP's (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) as they are now called, may be evidence of those hidden aliens getting around.
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| (The aliens were watching us in "The Day the Earth Stood Still" , 1951) |
A 2023 report from the Office for the Director of National Intelligence says there were 510 UAP sightings in 2022, higher than the 366 seen in 2021.
Of these, 171 were considered to "appear to have demonstrated unusual flight characteristics or performance capabilities that require further analysis."
The study, suggesting hidden aliens has not undergone peer review which most academic studies have to in order to get published. That may explain why it was taken off the web.
The study's authors have been criticized by a number of scientists who say their work is simply not a feasible thesis.
https://www.newsweek.com/alien-life-extraterrestrial-living-earth-harvard-1912264
“Welcome to the rainy season. South Florida is in the tropics. There will be thunderstorms for the next 4-5 months.”
Pushaw worked for Desantis' presidential campaign before he dropped out of the race. During that time Pushaw gained a reputation for attacking reporters instead of working with them.
As of July 1st, when new legislation takes effect, it will be against the law to mention "Climate Change" in any state document in Florida.
Apparently, all that devastating rain hasn't changed any thinking in the Sunshine State.
(Your suggestions and comments are welcome)
My recent book "The Campaign" can be purchased at the links below. Or you can buy a copy by emailing me at:
HankSilverberg@gmail.com for instructions on how to get a copy at a reduced price and with my signature)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084Q7K6M5/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-campaign-hank-silverberg/1126429796
My NEWEST book is now available. It is designed for use in Public Speaking and entry level communications classes.
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