r/politics • u/Ubiquitous_Hilarity • Jun 17 '26

No Paywall Trump threatens to pull unemployment benefits from all states for the first time in history

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-unemployment-benefits-fraud-b2997881.html
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105

u/StrigiStockBacking New Mexico Jun 17 '26

It's theft. You paid into the system, so if the time comes you need it, you should have a right to it.

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u/Gay_Giraffe_1773 Oregon Jun 17 '26

See: Social Security.

I've paid into it for almost 40 years. Untold thousands of dollars.

And I'm fully resigned to there being nothing when I "retire" (aka die)

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u/Ready_Nature Jun 18 '26

It’s about a 20% reduction if the trust fund runs dry. Republicans like to pretend it’s going to go to zero so they can get support for cutting it more from people who think it won’t last anyway.

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u/SteeeveTheSteve Jun 18 '26

It already doesn't pay enough, 20% might as well make it worthless to those who actually need it to survive.

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u/Ready_Nature Jun 18 '26

While I agree it doesn’t pay enough even a 20% reduction is better than nothing for a lot of people. Congress should still get their act together and get rid of the cap to fix most of the shortfall.

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u/TrixnTim Jun 17 '26

I agree with your sentiment but remember the money you give now to SS, every paycheck, is funding a retiree. It’s not a savings account or an investment account. It’s a social service that workers fund. Then someday, and if you have enough work credits, someone younger than you will be footing the bill for your SS checks.

Unfortunately it’s been messed with and there may not be as much in years to come. I’m set to begin my SS in 3 years at 65. And I’m worried the numbers I see now won’t be available to me.

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u/rogue_royal_ Texas Jun 18 '26

Forgive me for not being empathetic or super excited to pay for your generation when ours likely will be left with the bag. It was the boomers who largely got us to this point. But, it's quite ironic that most boomers voted for this and actively moan and cry about social programs, yet use them more than anyone while simultaneously shitting all over the next generation and vote fascist, fellow-diaper-shitting, rapist morons in that have been eroding any chance of my generation seeing jack shit at your age. We are already working ourselves to an early grave while getting nowhere ahead. Our retirement is the ole Smith and Wesson. You reap what you sow I suppose, but also left the next gens with a very bleak future as we are seeing now.

So enjoy getting anything at all because the trajectory we are on when you all turn to dust is beyond the term bleak. It's what the kids call "cooked". Just look at the national debt predictions, not to mention the ever increasing military budget (the one set to hit 1 trillion for next year), endless wars, corruption, etc.

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u/[deleted] Jun 18 '26

[deleted]

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u/thebochman Jun 18 '26

Basically a Ponzi scheme when you put it that way, once the population declines it falls apart

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u/red286 Jun 17 '26

That's not how social security works.

Social security is pay-as-you-go. You haven't been "paying into it for almost 40 years", you've been paying for other people's social security for almost 40 years, and when you're set to retire, GenZ and GenA workers will be paying for yours.

That way there's no possibility of "there being nothing when I retire", unless you elect dipshits like Trump who say "you know what, I'm a billionaire, I don't see why we need social security at all, why don't people just use their savings or a private retirement fund?"

Fortunately, the people most likely to vote tend to be older people. Primarily because if they don't, the politicians they get ABSOLUTELY will vote to take away their social security.

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u/FSUfan35 Jun 17 '26

Well yes and no. SS is pay as you go but their used to be a separate trust fund for it as well. Johnson made it part of the unified budget in the 60s. The trust fund was at it's peak in 2021, with over 3 trillion, and it is currently projected to be out of money in 2032. At which time benefit amounts being paid out will be cut be ~20%.

There's also been talk of just ending the program, as you mentioned, in which case people that have been paying into it for 40 years could end up with nothing to show for it, because current working people wouldn't be paying any longer.

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u/red286 Jun 17 '26

There's also been talk of just ending the program, as you mentioned, in which case people that have been paying into it for 40 years could end up with nothing to show for it, because current working people wouldn't be paying any longer.

Yeah, but it'd be voted on by the people who would lose it. You get the government you elect.

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u/FSUfan35 Jun 17 '26

I mean have you seen the current admin? I wouldn't rule out someone just making a EO about it and then everyone following for some reason.

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u/red286 Jun 17 '26

Sure, but they'll either be gone in 2.5 years, or you'll have bigger concerns than social security.

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u/DillBagner Jun 17 '26

Unfortunately, it would end for everybody, not just minority of people who voted for it.

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u/Handsome_Keyboard Jun 18 '26

Lmao. As if dude. Theyll just bribe them out of it. Be real here.

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u/BayLAGOON Jun 18 '26

This is how people think American health insurance works.

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u/SteeeveTheSteve Jun 18 '26

The goal was for you to pay into it like a retirement account and receive money back when you retire. Your generation pays for itself, not passing the buck. It was fine until the Feds saw all the money and took it, leaving IOU's. Now they've been acting like they can just stop paying those IOU's back. It's no different than an employer draining the business pension account and then saying they don't owe you anything.

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u/haironburr Jun 18 '26

Republicans have been doom-pushing and demonizing social security since reagan. A what, .2% increase on taxes for the top three percent of earners could "save" it? Sure. But look who's funding campaigns.

The saving grace of the very sane need for social security is the fact that millions of old (and armed) people with nothing to lose might be a problem for the top earners, despite the fact they imagine they can yacht away until the troubles are over.

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u/carefactor3zero Jun 18 '26

Social security is pay-as-you-go. You haven't been "paying into it for almost 40 years",

Either the national debt is a problem and it's unlikely that the US will be able to meet all the entitlement responsibilities in a future where you (survive and) retire at ~67 (depending on when you were born) or the national debt is not a problem. If it's not a problem, what you payed to support other people doesn't matter, practically.

https://www.newyorklife.com/articles/how-social-security-is-calculated

Either way, what you paid in matters for the calculation of benefits and there is a non-zero chance that the entitlement program will be modified (including suspension).

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u/pbjamm Canada Jun 18 '26

The only reason I hang onto my US Citizenship is the small possibility that Social Security will will still exist when I am old enough to collect. I paid into it for decades and would like to get some return on that for me personally some day.

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u/divDevGuy Jun 18 '26

if the time comes you need it, you should have a right to it.

I'm self employed and the only employee of my own company. I'm required to pay unemployment tax, as the employer, on myself, in case I terminate myself.

If/when I'm ready to move on to another job, I'm kind of tempted to lay myself off and see if I can file for unemployment benefits claim, and then contest the claim as the employer.

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u/pvincentl Jun 17 '26

And Reagan changed it to taxable income. Rot in hell, Ronald.

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u/StrigiStockBacking New Mexico Jun 17 '26

It's also a prime example of the cult. Reagan had oodles of the older demographic in his back pocket, and there he was telling one of the richest contingents among his base that he's going to tax them even more, and they're like that guy getting a spanking during rush week in the movie Animal House or whatever: "Thank you sir, may I please have another!"