Friday, November 11, 2016

Donald Trump on Social Security & Veterans Affairs


November 9, 2016 By Kelly

Let’s have a quick look at what the President-Elect has had to say about Social Security.

I will save Social Security with more jobs, less waste

I’m going to save Social Security. You have tremendous waste, fraud and abuse. We have in Social Security thousands of people over 106 years old. You know they don’t exist. There’s tremendous waste, fraud and abuse, and we’re going to get it. But we’re not going to hurt the people who have been paying into Social Security their whole life and then all of a sudden they’re supposed to get less. We’re bringing jobs back.

Source: 2016 CBS Republican primary debate in South Carolina , Feb 13, 2016

I’ll give up my Social Security; leave it to each person

Q: Chris Christie says billionaires and people who make and earn far less should no longer get Social Security, or there should be limits based on income.

A: I’m OK with it. I would be willing to say I will not get Social Security. As a policy, I would leave it up to the people. Don’t forget they pay in, and maybe they do well, and maybe some people want it. But the fact is that there are people that truly don’t need it, and there are many people that do need it very, very badly.

Source: 2015 Republican two-tiered primary debate on CNN , Sep 16, 2015

Cannot change Medicare or Soc.Sec. and still win elections

[At CPAC, Trump said]: “As Republicans, if you think you are going to change very substantially for the worse Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security in any substantial way, and at the same time you think you are going to win elections, it just really is not going to happen,” Mr. Trump said, adding that polls show that tea partyers are among those who don’t want their entitlements changed. “What we have to do and the way we solve our problems it to build a great economy.”

Source: 2013 Conservative Political Action Conf. in Washington Times , Mar 15, 2013

Social Security isn’t an “entitlement”; it’s honoring a deal

Social Security faces a problem: 77 million baby boomers set to retire. Now I know there are some Republicans who would be just fine with allowing these programs to wither and die on the vine. The way they see it, Social Security and Medicare are wasteful “entitlement programs.” But people who think this way need to rethink their position. It’s not unreasonable for people who paid into a system for decades to expect to get their money’s worth–that’s not an “entitlement,” that’s honoring a deal. We as a society must also make an ironclad commitment to providing a safety net for those who can’t make one for themselves.

Social Security is here to stay. To be sure, we must reform it, root out the fraud, make it more efficient, and ensure that the program is solvent.

Same goes for Medicare. Again, people have lived up to their end of the bargain and paid into the program in good faith. Of course they believe they’re “entitled” to receive the benefits they paid for–they are!


Disability Racket: $25B in fraudulent disability filings

The top estimates are $2,340,000,000 in Medicare fraud over a decade–or 16% of America’s entire national debt!

Then there’s the disability racket. Did you know that one out of every 20 people in America now claims disability? That adds up to $170 billion a year in disability checks. Between 2005 and 2009, it is estimated that $25 billion were eaten up in fraudulent Social Security Disability Insurance filings. On and on, scam after scam it goes; as always, taxpayers are the ones getting stiffed.

Source: Time to Get Tough, by Donald Trump, p. 77 , Dec 5, 2011

Pay off debt; put $3T interest savings into Trust Fund

I would impose a one-time, 14.25% tax on individuals and trusts with a net worth over $10 million. That would raise $5.7 trillion in new revenue, which we would use to pay off the entire national debt. We would save $200 billion in interest payments, which would allow us to cut taxes on middle-class working families by $100 billion a year or $1 trillion over ten years. We could use the rest of the savings–$100 billion-to bolster the Social Security Trust Fund. By 2030, we [will have] put $3 trillion into the trust Fund, which would make it solvent into the next century. [In addition to shoring up Social Security for the long term], I say it’s high time to separate Social Security from the general treasury. It is time to lock-box it and throw away the key.

The rich will scream. Only the top 1% of people-those with a net worth of $10 million or more-would be affected by my plan. The other 99% would get deep reductions in heir federal income taxes.


Let people invest their own retirement funds

The solution to the Great Social Security crisis couldn’t be more obvious: Allow every American to dedicate some portion of their payroll taxes to a personal Social Security account that they could own and invest in stocks and bonds. Federal guidelines would make sure that your money is diversified, that it is invested in sound mutual funds or bond funds, and not in emu ranches. The national savings rate would soar and billions of dollars would be cycled from savings, to productive assets, to retirement money. And unlike the previous system, the assets in this retirement account could be left to one’s heirs, used to start a business, or anything else one desires.

Privatization would be good for all of us. Directing Social Security funds into personal accounts invested in real assets would swell national savings, pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into jobs and the economy. These investments would boost national investment, productivity, wages, and future economic growth.


No government investment of retirement funds

I would never support what has to be the craziest ideas in the history of U.S. politics: allowing the government to invest Social Security retirement funds in the stock market. Not only would a market downturn spell disaster for millions of retirees, but the process by which government would choose stocks would also be entirely political, making lobbyists and other political hacks the new masters of the universe.

Source: The America We Deserve, by Donald Trump, p.273-74 , Jul 2, 2000

DONALD J. TRUMP’S VISION FOR VETERANS AFFAIRS REFORM

·         Ensure our veterans get the care they need wherever and whenever they need it. No more long drives. No more waiting backlogs. No more excessive red tape. Just the care and support they earned with their service to our country.

·         Support the whole veteran, not just their physical health care, but also by addressing their invisible wounds, investing in our service members’ post-active duty success, transforming the VA to meet the needs of 21st century service members, and better meeting the needs of our female veterans.

·         Make the VA great again by firing the corrupt and incompetent VA executives who let our veterans down, by modernizing the VA, and by empowering the doctors and nurses to ensure our veterans receive the best care available in a timely manner.

Donald J. Trump’s 10 Point Plan to Reform The Department of Veterans Affairs

1. Appoint a VA Secretary whose sole purpose will be to serve veterans. Under a Trump Administration, the needs of D.C. bureaucrats will no longer be placed above those of our veterans.

2. Use the powers of the presidency to remove and discipline the federal employees and managers who have violated the public’s trust and failed to carry out the duties on behalf of our veterans.

3. Ask that Congress pass legislation that empowers the Secretary of the VA to discipline or terminate any employee who has jeopardized the health, safety or well-being of a veteran.

4. Create a commission to investigate all the fraud, cover-ups, and wrong-doing that has taken place in the VA, and present these findings to Congress to spur legislative reform.

5. Protect and promote honest employees at the VA who highlight wrongdoing, and guarantee their jobs will be protected.

6. Create a private White House hotline, which will be active 24 hours a day answered by a real person. It will be devoted to answering veteran’s complaints of wrongdoing at the VA and ensure no complaints fall through the cracks.

7. Stop giving bonuses to any VA employees who are wasting money, and start rewarding employees who seek to improve the VA’s service, cut waste, and save lives.

8. Reform the visa system to ensure veterans are at the front of the line for health services, not the back.

9. Increase the number of mental health care professionals, and allow veteran’s to be able to seek mental health care outside of the VA.

10. Ensure every veteran has the choice to seek care at the VA or at a private service provider of their own choice. Under a Trump Administration, no veteran will die waiting for service.

Read More on Donald J. Trump’s 10 Point Plan to Reform The Department of Veterans Affairs, here.

Read Mr. Trump’s Remarks in Virginia Beach, at the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention, and to the American Legion.
http://senioramericansassociation.com/2016/11/09/donald-trump-social-security-veterans-affairs/?utm_source=161109SAAMRLCFAR2&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=161109SAAMRLCFAR2

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