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Subscribe to RSSEXETER, N.H. -- Newt Gingrich wrapped his latest New Hampshire swing by calling Social Security "a fact" and drew a distinction from Perry in his approach to the matter.
Speaking to 125 retirees at RiverWoods Retirement Community, Gingrich hit back at Rick Perry on his social security debate remarks.
"Social security is a fact," he said.
He went on to advocate a plan for those younger than 40 to choose either a personal investment option or the current system.
"For those above 48, nothing changes,” Gingrich said. “We would keep the current system.” (His communications staff clarified said that is an approximate age.) Remember, Gingrich caught flak from conservatives for deriding Rep. Paul Ryan’s approach to reforming Medicare, calling it “right-wing social engineering.”
He said economic growth is the key to making Social Security work in the short term.
Asked by a retired physician about his position on healthcare, Gingrich even said he agrees with parts of Obama's health-care plan but did not think the vast majority was acceptable.
Gingrich also said he supports drug testing for everyone who receives federal aid; criticized Warren Buffett and Bill Gates for putting money into tax-free foundations; and called poverty in America both "cultural and structural" and advocated that welfare recipients to work toward an equity stake in public housing.
Gingrich has no public events scheduled this weekend and will appear at the CNN Tampa debate Monday night.
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Slick Ricky's 'Ponzi Scheme' comment is going to haunt him...
It's too bad cause I really really want to see him get the nomination! lol
Teapubican's might of mainstreamed crazy, but thankfully there are still thinking people out there who haven't guzzled the hate-or-aide!
Newty was just playing the audience I would bet.
Perry's other under the table deals are all coming to light, I don't believe he will make it to the end. That executive order he signed for 6th grade girls to get Gardisil, seems he has connections with the drug company!
And Newty, hell he basically told the commentators the other night to stop trying to get these guys on the stage to debate each other, they have one common goal, say it with me "Make Obama a one term President"!
Perhaps Perry will suffer for saying 'Ponzi scheme' ; but it pales in comparison to the comment that will really haunt President Obama from last night:
That his Stimulus 2 plan “is fully paid for.”
Absolutely 100% demonstrably not true.
I just feel the Pres has to make a move. No one else is doing anything else and if we just sit here and keep doing what we are doing we could crash!
Reckless Rick looks Presidential, but thinks like a villiage idiot with money to burn. The Evengelicals like him because his foreign policy brashness would bring on the End Times they so desperately long for.
the people that vote for repubs are all village IDIOTS
Let me see. During the debate Newt Gingrich was defending Rick Perry's 'Fed Up' remarks about social security as just ideas, he didn't really mean he would implement them but put Newt in front of a crowd of seniors and it's magic--social security is a fact but hey, let's let Wall Street have some of that money if the younger folks want to try their luck betting their safety net at the roulette wheel.
Newt's just being Newt - whatever sells wherever it sells whatever it sells. Newt's for it after he was against it. "Don't worry old folks, we'll do something with you when you retire. Did any of you see the movie Logan's Run?"
Mav, I know. You'd think more people would realize that.
Rush Limbaugh supportsPerry on the Ponzi Scheme. Isn't that all that really matters?
Gingrich is at least being truthful about the right-wing social engineering that includes privatizing, er uh, "saving" Social Security. What a joke. Bush tried to get this passed with a Republican congress, before the economic meltdown, and failed miserably.
If they want to take Social Security benefits that already have your name on it and make it impossible for congress to raid it, or allow you to invest in other safe returns aside from treasury bonds, that might be of interest. Going out on your own against Wall Street whims or real Ponzi Schemes like Bernie Madoff--No thank you.
Social Security is a fact, and the fact is it could be made solvent beyond 2037 very easily--without any changes in eligibility age or pay-outs--just by increasing the cap on FICA withholdings, and everyone's contribution for that matter. Most people would prefer to contribute more to FICA than rely on their 401ks.
Perry or any candidate who wants to destroy trust funds, privatizing, vouchers, whatever they want to call it, is a loser literally. The extremism of the GOP/TP is going to be their demise.
Mav -- Logan's Run, Soylent Green, Brave New World...
Patriot,
I've been advocating lifting the cap on FICA withholdings for the past two years, but you don't even hear it as a remote possibility. Rather they would have the next generation work into their 70's in order to draw any benefits.
Our generation needs to take responsibility for the mess we created (although GW, should take a large portion of responsibility). We have led the lie that continually cutteing taxes will somehow lead to a better economy, and it has if you're in the 2% club, for the rest of us it has meant stagnant wages and continual decline in our standard of living. Trickle-down should be called flooding up as the only ones who have benefitted are the super wealthy.
I think this is a really bad time politically for any candidate to so vehemently vilify Social Security. Private retirement accounts (like mine) have been clobbered the past few years. There is no confidence things are going to get any better any time soon. People who have been in the workforce a long time feel they may not have time to rebuild investments, and will need Social Security.
I see Mr. Gingrich as irrelevant.
100% correct, I know many that spent a lot of their 401k and retirement to save their homes and pay their bills. I may work til I drop dead but not sure what I would do if I retired...
Even in the best of times it is just politically stupid to say (to the world) that a 60 year old US government program has been nothing more than a Ponzi Scheme. The guy is an idiot, and somebody needs to rework his local Texas spiel into something worthy of the national and world stage. I really don't think he can beat Obama, in an open debate without rehearsed questions and answers I think Perry would look foolish, because what else can happen when you say foolish things.
Forrest,
The "debate" on Wednesday was disproportionately slanted toward Mr Perry and Mr Romney but in a way that may have been a good thing, for Mr Perry's presentation deteriorated markedly as the session wore on, perhaps showing him as he really is. I would really like to see him pass as a flash in the pan (a la Bachmann) but unfortunately he likely has more staying power. His Texas spiel will wear thin, though.
We'll see.
He has a lot of problems politically, and I know this sounds petty but I am just talking politics and human nature here, even if he was a better candidate, he looks acts and sounds so much like George Bush many people will associate him with Bush and even that will work against him.
Forrest ...
How many people do you think each month have to pay into the Social Security program just to pay for 1 retiree? Give me a number Please...Just a guess will do! Do you think its a 1 for 1 swap? If not then taking more than one person to pay for 1 person is in fact a Pyramid/Ponzi Scheme!!!
You want to know why the system is a failure? A person in a lifetime can not pay in enough (even with interest) to equal the hr aamount American retirees are collecting today!
rsue to p
Do you know the definition of a Pyramid Scheme ? (Ponzi Scheme)
I have read that it takes 40 fire fighters use to pay the pension of 1 fire fighter... DO THE MATH...and how many people will it take to pay those 40 fire fighters pensions? lets 40 X40 = 1600 AND 1600 x 40 = 64,000..... GET THE PICTURE, YET?
Look at your pay stub...then compare that with how much you expect to get every month! How does the math work for you...
Social Security Trust Fund? Right...It was "invested" in U.S Treasury Bonds at such a low yield it can't work..even if the U.S. Government COULD REPAY IT...WHICH IT CAN NOT!!!
Please explain to me how this is a viable system!
Jim -- Bernie Madoff's Wall Street gambling is a Ponzi Scheme. Social Security is more like insurance, in which not everyone collects. Now that people are living longer, but in pooer health, certainly the system needs to be improved. As you say, it could be more of a professionally-managed pension plan.
And let's say it's a 3 to 1 program, that would be because it's not just a pension plan for retirement, but also for disabilities and other assistance. Disabilities need to be means tested and favoring those in a truly dire situation. Survivor benefits for spouses who never worked, or minors, is what contributes to the skewed ratio as well. But people have no excuse for the lack of life insurance, so IMO survivor benefits should be eliminated completely. And the FICA withholdings need to be updated, and benefit pay-out needs to be means tested.
You cannot find a retirement plan, and certainly not health care/disability on the private market that would compensate for lack of trust funds. If we had Medicare for all, we could move legitimate disabilities to that program, and with everyone contributing to the pool (yes, a mandate), and the program being administrated by the government as non-profit (removing the greedy insurance middlemen), Medicare could be shored-up as well.
But doing nothing is NOT an option, nor is just abolishing programs because Teapublicans don't want to govern. That's the truth right there--Teapublicans don't want to do the real work of governing. What we would have is the American Nightmare.
I don't have your exact numbers for you Jim, but in a true Ponzi scheme on a very few at the top of the pyramid get paid, social security has successfully paid out to millions if you make it as simple as you want to make it, insurance is a ponzi scheme, corporations are a ponzi scheme, and wall street hedge fund managers are running ponzi schemes.
No way and no how can we let Slick Rick win anything. He is the most dangerous person running.
Hopefully, all Democrat-Progressives will vote against him in their state primaries.
"Gingrich also said he supports drug testing for everyone who receives federal aid; criticized Warren Buffett and Bill Gates for putting money into tax-free foundations; and called poverty in America both "cultural and structural" and advocated that welfare recipients to work toward an equity stake in public housing"
OK Newt lets do this......Federal aid like tax cuts for the rich and corporations? Good, wall street did receive federal bail out.......test them for drugs. i betcha, you'll find it in different dosage there.
Koch brother and cronies are wallowing in tax welfare from Fed. Test them too.
Aids go to the poor, and the rich alike.......Newt, test them all.
Job1
the funny thing about Perry, he did not carry any of the big cities here in Texas, he could lose here! Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Dallas all went with the Democrat in the last Gov race. He won by the skin of his teeth because only 5 out of 18 million even bothered to vote. Plus we have open primaries here so all the Dems and Independents can vote in the GOTP primary! weeeeeeeeeeee.....
PEN-24
and who would The Newtster propose pay for drug testing everyone getting aid?
Robert-1960
That is good news. Thanks
Robert, The reason Perry didn't carry any of the big cities in Texas is easy. Just like the national elections..... the liberal base is in the large metropolitan areas. Face it the democrates base consists of mostly people that are dependent on big government and must subsist on other peoples handouts, money! The Republicans, on the other hand, is made of of people that earn what they receive and therefore resist big government!
oop, my mistake.... misspelled Democrats in previous post. The liberals may have a field day pointing that out rather than respond to the subject! lol
SteveH USA,
Your commit is the most Stupid, Dumba$$ and Red Neck statement I have ever heard.
Seriously Steve, you really believe that metro areas are liberal because they are "all living off of handouts"? Really? Perhaps you should study demographics and statistic and economics, and stop living off of Fox News handouts. Money doesn't come from dirt farmers (coincidentally who DO live off of government handouts) and rubes who believe that creationism is science and that scientists are evil because they don't agree with big business. You could buy a clue with your vast wealth...or just read something other than "Fed Up".
Drug testing for everyone who receives federal aid? Seriously Newt, you want to drug test 13 million senior citizens? Let's see, at $5 each per month, that would be $780,000,000 in the first year. Dumbazz.
Smitty, actually the money saved by preventing illegal drug users from getting Federal aid would greatly exceed your estimates of the costs!
Rick Scott drug testing proved in FL that a very low percent of people on welfare were using drugs. It's a BIG LIE.
Job1
But isn't ANY percentage TO MUCH???
Listen up everyone - One more time: Social Security and Medicare are NOT federal aid or welfare!!! I have paid out of every paycheck, every month, for the over 40 years that I have worked for that no-where-near-enough Social Security check. Medicare is not free! I pay a premium every month for that no-where-near-enough coverage! And for both programs, I pay the difference between what I get and what things actually cost.
Wait a minuts Smitty-thenk about it-13 million dug test-and that is every month or so. Now some is going to have to give thoses test and admister the results Can wa say"JObs Program" here? And think of this-every who get federal aid-this could mean every assemby line worker inevery plant recieveing bail out money. It could also mean every bank employee at every bank that receieves fredral loansorgrantees. And what about home loan garantees-why exmpt them?
Ca you say "Drug testing welfare program fast enough"?
Let cal this for what it is: the Repubvlican response to unemployment.
If Americans are smart and looking out for their security they will not vote in any more Republicans because as sure as I'm posting here, Social Security and Medicare will be the first things, right after they do away with health care reform, they get rid of. Don't believe me? Well start listening to them and read between the lines they speak remembering that politicians love to use code words so they can't be pigeoned holed with direct responses. I believe that Democrats can tie Social Security and Medicare around Republicans' necks and choke them with it in 2012.
they may pull out their second amendment rights and just start shooting poor people and old people! An elite society; hum sounds familiar!
A Ponszi scheme uses inflows by new investers to pay promised returns for earlier investors which cannot be sustained without those new investors. Some of the money is siphoned off to enrich the engineers of the scheme. The only thing that distinguishes SS from a Ponszi scheme is that SS has been established by law and is therefore legal! In it's present form, it is unsustainable. This is a fact. At some point we will have to cut benefits or raise more money. Look at England where riots occured after payouts were decreased 25%. Does it not seem wise to try to fix the problem before we get to that point. Currently payouts are linked to amount paid in. If you increase the limit which is taxed (and this is what some propose), the payouts for those people will also increase. This will limit the windfall that some hope to gain! If payouts are not increased for those people, then SS simply becomes more of a wealth transfer vehicle than it already is!
Yet, Obama is raiding the funds going in to buy votes.
Face it, folks- Social Security needs an overhaul, or the problem will take care of itself.
It will collapse, and there will BE no Social Security.
Let's take the Republican party back for middle America! Republicans will lose elections as long as they continue to offer candidates who are far right. When they return more to the middle, they will have a much better chance. If you are currently not registered as a Republican, you should seriously consider changing your voter registration at this time. You know that Obama will be running in 2012. Register Republican, so you can help determine who will run against him.
I don't believe any partyy will ever be able to eliminate SS or Medicare! Maybe change but not eliminate!
The presidency of the United State has great prestige throughout the world. Does anyone here think that a caucasian(white, republican) president would have stirred the young people of the middle east to challenge their dictators. I think our president has encouraged these young people to be daring and risk their lives for the freedoms we have. I do not believe they would allow corporations to dictate to them as we have. What are your thoughts.
just curious
Well I never heard a single one (young people of the middle east) yell YEEE HAAAW, so I think you got something there.
Ctborn56-4020140
Obvisouly you do not read the International Media...
Read this article, 'Obama's betrayals offer lessons we can't deny.' see http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/08/201182991442788791.html
Then you can go to; BBC, The Australian, NHK, The Hindu, Al Jazeera, etc, etc...
Your point is that President Obama is a secret republican. Somebody needs to tell the republican party, they treat all of Obama's ideals as failures and hate him with a passion.
Given the choice of Obama or one of the lovely republican choices from the far right, I'll stick with Obama. If he is a republican at least he is a centralist republican which not longer exist in the real republican party anymore.
obama has temporarily become a Republican, this is very true! But his reasons are to acquire votes by any means available.... ergo he will be a Republican until the day after the election when he will scoot quickly back to the far left where he is most comfortable.
This happened before, or maybe you don't remember.....? He also became a Republican prior to the 2010 elections.... that didn't work out too well for the guy, did it?
AC Robertson, thanks for the link! Too often the liberals prefer their spin without facts.... sounds better to them that way, but the truth must always gets buried!
Ctborn
Remember the PURPLE FINGERS of Iraq in 2005 and 2010??? I wonder who made that possible. Could it be George W. Bush???? Don't you think that those elections had an impact or the Arab World? You know "If the Iraqi's can do it why can't we?" train of thought.
Pen, you need to check facts instead of continuing to spew forth "tax cuts for the wealthy". Your president called the Bush tax cuts the largest tax cut for the middle class in history when he allowed them to be extended. ! So which is it!? If you don't pay taxes it's hard to understand how you can judge the top 2% who pay over 50% of federal income taxes!
Come on, respond! Pen, you have all the answers, respond! You just listen to NBC news! Just think for yourself!!!
Feisty, get a job and get off the dole!! you have way much time on your hands!
TES - without First Read feisty redwig would wither and die, she loves being the enabler of class warfare at this blog.....she feeds on the hatred much like maggots feed on dung.
Unfortunately obama is doing the same to the country, for different reasons and at a much more serious level!
Well, if we are going to drug test people getting fed aid like welfare, are we going to drug test corp execs that get special lobbyist enabled tax breaks? after all those are government handouts and they are even bigger...this idea of drug testing people because they are poor really disgusts.. and I usually like Newt
How about drug and Alcohol tests for politicians .I know some of them are on LSD
I agree uaw. All of congress and the senate are on public welfare, so lets drug test them.
I think they need breathalyzers so we can know their alcohol levels coming to work. Boner looked liked he has thrown back a couple before Obama's speech as he sat their stone faced. I was amazed at his lack of emotion. At the same time you could read Biden's emotions on his face.
I like to study faces and know that all they tell you doesn't come out of their mouths. Nixon use to do this eyebrow thing right before he would tell a lie. I think I have found Perry's tell, but I have to watch a little more to know for sure.
Oh Newt, mind your own business. You have more issues and baggage than Perry, anyway! And a lot of it hangs over your belt, you fat slob politician. Besides, the likelihood that you'll get elected "is a fact" too ... and Ricky is the new poster boy for the TeaParty KamikazeParty ... he's already been instructed to hush mentioning Social Security & ponzi in the same sentence. You know how it is with Repubs ... its not what you believe, its what you say ... anything to get elected, right?
Let's see ... Ricky is a "right to life" when it comes to pregnancy & embryos, and a "right to death" (234 so far for his governorship) when it comes to lethal injections ... wonder how many of those 234 that were put to death were innocent but convicted simply because they couldn't afford a slick lawyer? Even at 5% ... which is probably low, that's over 11 people, who were innocent, that died at your hands.
Says alot about the Republicans who support him doesn't it.
Perry and the tea people GOP republicans just want to execute everyone anyway. Just listen to the applause Perry got for executing over 200 people in Texas. His response to what if some of them were innocent, too bad.
Putting Social Security and Medicare into private accounts run by the stock market is like taking your money to Vegas and playing the slots or any gambling game, it's risky and you could lose your shirt. Just more money into wealthy pockets.
Why do you think smart people put money into the stock market!? Is it because bond rates (the amount our SS payments gain) are beaten by many percentage points over the years by stocks? It is more "like taking your money to Vegas" when you allow the federal government to control your destiny! You like the idea of a common pool managed by your government because it then is easier for those funds to be stolen to be given to the "less fortunate"! Private accounts work in Chile, Australia and I'm sure in other countries I'm not aware of.
This big lie has gone on long enough.Just last week, I saw a program in which probably the last HONEST financial manager issued a plea for regular middle class folk like myself to not listen to the talking heads and not invest in the market unless you can afford to lose it. He said, with no hesitation, that the vast majority of amateur investors lose their money! Privatization works well for the money managers that are foaming at the bit to get a cut of the government money but what happens when yet another bubble bursts? People like these don't care what happens to the victims as long as they get their cut.
We in Texas know of at least one innocent man that perry allowed to die. Why does the national media ignore this? Credible fire inspectors proved there was no way the fire that killed two little girls could have been set by the dad, yet perry allowed the execution and dismantled the fire board so they could not investigate further. no fed. worker, state worker, person on disability or SS should vote for perry because you will actually be voting to destroy your program or end your job. he wants the government to be insignificant in your lives but in that case, the poor RED states will actually be hurt worst of all. Reduced to states of beggars. my buddies, fiesty or nashville could provide you with a chart showing these statements as facts. all red states(Texas comes closest to holding its own, but does receive a little more than it sends in) are beggars from the fed, while NY,CAL. and other blue states contribute more to the fed. than they receive.
perry also cut Texas vol. fire dept. budgets by 75% to "balance" his budget along with 5 billion from education. All you teachers out there with any hint of voting for perry need to remember, 62% of teachers in Texas are republicans(and teach Sunday School BTW) and voted for perry. he still cut our wages by around 1200 dollars and increased our insurance premiums and co-pays. Because of his cuts, thousands of teachers and support staff were laid off. Imagine what he will do to people who are NOT his FRIENDS!
when the primaries finally come to Texas, I'll vote for huntsman. He at least seems to be a man of his word and reasonable.
Nuke Gingrich... always dealing with radio-active fall out. More people need to stop listening to him. Maybe he'll just go away like last time.
No more GOP; definitely democrats never. Save the nation: elect "others".
Wow...all of 125 people? Poor Newt, his candidacy is plummeting faster than he knows.
Wonder why he didn't say anything last Wednesday night about Perry's views on Social Security when they were on stage during the debate?
I can understand why he wouldn't have said that during the debate...the other 7 would have been flagged for "piling on" going after him after he stated that. Aahhh well, as far as his conservative buds go, that should just about put the fork in ol' Newt this time around.
Politics, schmolitics. What is supposed to be a mundane debate conducted in good faith by public servants from among the common people is instead an exercise in ideological obfuscation. Does anybody remember the headlines from earlier this summer? WE DON'T HAVE ANY REAL MONEY! The entire economy is artificial, fourteen figures' worth, and the Chinese and the Saudis are getting rich off our greed while we flail away just trying to service the interest.
Democracy, my ass. These people are appointed, not elected, by the PACs and the corporate boards, who couldn't give a hoot whether this country is run by socialists or fascists or prestidigitalists, as long as their personal fiefdoms are secure. And the middle class just follows along like a bunch of cattle, punching ballots for cynical anti-democratic operatives who just might help them hang on to their personal advantages, whatever they are. Never mind whether our hyper-inflated way of life is ethically, morally or environmentally defensible, or what shape this old world might be in for our grandchildren to live in.
Democrats are selling big government so the unions and the bureaucrats can keep their baseless perqs. Republicans want us to think it's God's will that we squander everything we touch as long as the bombs keep rolling off the assembly lines until Jesus comes back.
To those of you who say, "love it or leave it", up yours. I sound off like this because I can, and my freedom to do so is worth exercising until these cardboard cutout limelight junkies take that away too.
WHY DON'T WE TALK SOLUTIONS , social security is going under , we either fix it or lose it ,
SMALL consumption tax could be a solution , THOSE THAT MAKE MORE SPEND MORE ,
It really would be more beneficial for America if we talked solutions , Instead of the CRAP THAT GOES ON HERE
I certainly agree with that. My opinion has always been that the beginnings of solutions lie within us, and the lifestyle choices we make. Why do we have to have everything that catches our eyes? I get more joy from riding a bicycle with my six-year-old around the high school quadrangle than any expensive, petroleum-wasting, tourism-choked resort vacation. I can't for the life of me understand why we ever needed things like jetliners, and ski areas, and high-end shopping malls, and giant SUVs that get eight MPG, and six thousand square foot houses for three people to live in. There is my solution, and I have spent my life trying to live by a simple code: Have less, use less, demand less, and count your blessings.
Our wasteful lives are a cruel expression of blindness and greed, and future generations will curse us for leaving them nothing because we squandered it all.