Colorado Retirees: McCain Should Reject Social Security Benefits

[cal04]

think progress
Colorado Retirees: McCain Should Reject Social Security Benefits After Calling It ‘An Absolute Disgrace’
In July, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who has claimed that Social Security is “broken,” went a step further and disparaged the retirement program at a Denver, CO townhall, calling it an “absolute disgrace”:

Americans have got to understand that we are paying present day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers…and that’s a disgrace. It’s an absolute disgrace.

Watch it:
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/08/12/mccain-ss-protest-aspen/

McCain’s statement reflected a lack of knowledge about Social Security. “(P)resent-day retirees have always been paid their benefits from the taxes paid by current workers. That has been true from Social Security’s inception,” noted Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Now, Colorado seniors are pushing back. McCain is scheduled to speak in Aspen, CO on Thursday, which is coincidentally the 73rd anniversary of the Social Security Act. The Aspen Times reports that a group of seniors plans to protest McCain’s event:

The Colorado Alliance for Retired Americans is organizing a gathering of mostly Front Range retirees to protest during McCain’s engagement at The Aspen Institute’s Greenwald Pavilion. … The Colorado group and the national alliance have been expressing alarm since McCain’s remarks at a July 7 town hall meeting in Denver.

McCain has long supported gutting Social Security. In 2005, he campaigned for President Bush’s radical Social Security privatization plan, though he denies it today. In 2008, McCain said his plan would create “private savings accounts…along the lines that President Bush proposed.”

In 2007, McCain received $23,157 in benefits from Social Security, despite his claim that the system is “broken.” “We’re just absolutely flabbergasted that a man who has been collecting close to $24,000 a year in Social Security has called it a disgrace,” Bernadette Horchner, a member of the Colorado group, said. “He doesn’t give back the money.”

McCain to draw protest in Aspen
Social Security reform remarks rankle retirees
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20080812/NEWS/953606352/1077/&ParentProfile=1059&profile=1076&parentprofile=-1

[Skink]

1. So Mccain is retired.

Retired people I know can only make up to 50 percent of what they made while working in order to be eligable for benefits. Or has he renounced his Government salary?

[Obamanaut]

3. There is no penalty imposed after the retiree reaches full

retirement age, which varies depending on birth year. Mine for example is 65 yr + 7 months. I recently got a letter from SSA telling me I can work as much as I want to now.

Prior to full retirement age, the penalty is $1 for every $2 earned over a certain amount annually, which changes from year to year. Not sure what it is today, but it's around $13,000

[sinkingfeeling]

2. I still don't understand how a naval officer acquired the 40 quarters needed to collect SS. Doesn't

the navy have it's own retirement program?

[Obamanaut]

4. Oh good grief. The military does have a retirement system, and

that particular Naval officer served 23 years, and thus was eligible for retirement.

The military began participating in the social security program a LONG time ago, thus making that particular Naval officer eligible for social security benefits when he became age eligible.

Both of these items have been discussed at great length in this forum previously.

[sinkingfeeling]

5. Sorry I missed those discussions. My ex-father-in-law is a retired Air Force Colonel and does not

receive Social Security.

[Obamanaut]

6. Has he applied? Did he retire prior to military participation in the

social program - I think that would be in the late 50's, but not real sure. Every military retiree that I know who is old enough is eligible, and most receive, social security benefits.