Ron Paul Admits He's On Social Security, Even Though He Believes It's Unconstitutional
Source: Huffington Post
Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) may rail against Social Security insolvency in the public eye, but that hasn't stopped him from accepting the government checks.
The libertarian-leaning Republican and former presidential candidate admitted Wednesday that he accepts Social Security checks just minutes after he called for younger generations to wean themselves off the program, in an interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
"I want young people to opt out of Social Security, but my goal isn't to cut," he said.
The Huffington Post's Sam Stein then asked Paul, "A bit of a personal question -- Are you on Social Security? Do you get social security checks?"
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/20/ron-paul-social-security_n_1612117.html
hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)Lawlbringer
(550 posts)INdemo
(6,994 posts)Paul Ryan's college education was paid for with Social Security benefits?...His dad died at the age of 55 and his then 16 yr son collected benefits through high school and college...But yet he now, like Ron Paul wants to destroy it...
freshwest
(53,661 posts)wordpix
(18,652 posts)OnyxCollie
(9,958 posts)MADem
(135,425 posts)Everyone I know thinks he is a racist, anti-choice dumbass. Now we know he's a hypocrite, too.
graham4anything
(11,464 posts)Yup!
mbperrin
(7,672 posts)He's a Republican, all right.
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,843 posts)a kennedy
(29,796 posts)ugh. and the "I've got mine" mantra..... edit to add this.
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)freshstart
(265 posts)Good point.
DaveJ
(5,023 posts)He falls in like perfectly with Repuke's. He's got his SS, and it doesn't matter if anyone after him gets theirs.
Sames applies to a multitude of Repukes who collect government pensions. They got theirs, now screw everyone else.
MADem
(135,425 posts)But NOOOOOOOOO!!!! He's a wrinkled old Greed Is Good Gordon Gecko at the end of the day, isn't he?
"Do as I say, not as I do!"
TYPICAL REPUBLICAN!
Worried senior
(1,328 posts)ours is what we try to have enough of every month.
thesquanderer
(12,002 posts)I don't see this as hypocrisy. If you're paying into a system that you think is messed up to begin with, there's nothing wrong with trying to make the best of it.
I think there should probably be no mortgage interest deduction... but I darn well take it.
If someone doesn't think Social Security should exist, but they have paid into it for 50 years, I would sure expect them to want to get the benefit that they were forced to pay for.
Dokkie
(1,688 posts)Is a pacifist who was drafted into the US army refuse his military benefits or GI bill? Yea, he was and still against the war but the pacifist is not a hypocrite for collecting on such benefits even as he is protesting an end to the war. Also consider that he is still paying SS insurance on his millions of dollars made from selling his many books and investments, its OK if he collected SS
Remember folks, SS is just a public retirement fund not an entitlement.
valerief
(53,235 posts)implemented.
It's an entitlement we're entitled to. Period. End of story.
Dokkie
(1,688 posts)That what it has evolved to be since it was passed. Now he was and still is mandated by the US govt to pay into said SS insurance for at least 40+(and counting) years now. Its not like he had a choice in the 1st place.
But then again look at it from an angle of someone who hates the govt and want to shrink it, why leave some of his own money to the govt? it actually works against his goals if he did not collect it. I sometimes troll libertarian forums and every once in a while someone comes up with the idea of killing the by trying to get libertarians to en mass apply for all sorts of govt program with the end goal of draining their resources and causing it to fail.
This move is right up their play book
valerief
(53,235 posts)brendan120678
(2,490 posts)WHY is it an entitlement? If we are entitled to that money, why take it from the workers in the first place?
newspeak
(4,847 posts)on WS to have it. More play money for the big boys. And he's one of those "let the corporations police themselves" kind of guy. I'm sure they could probably screw every senior out of their money in a couple of years.
Ayn Rand on medicare, he gets SS, Heck's wife took unemployment money. I mean if they really believed in their ideology, wouldn't they refuse the help? After all, those useless feeders should just die, right Paul? My MIL, aunts, all depend on SS.
They apparently must deserve it, it's just the plebes that need to find a way to exist or die.
sarge43
(28,947 posts)I
frylock
(34,825 posts)he's just another loud mouth hypocrite. if he believed the shit he was saying, he'd walk the walk.
NYC Liberal
(20,140 posts)If he wants other people to do it, he should too.
If I tell you "Hey, x, y, and z tax deductions are bad, you should choose not to take them" and then I myself take them, that's hypocritical.
thesquanderer
(12,002 posts)He's proposing a system where people can opt out--of BOTH sides (paying in and collecting)--but he is not suggesting that anyone who is entitled to soc sec refuse to take it. At least not in anything I've seen.
freshstart
(265 posts)Opt out? Urrrggghhh. That is a ploy to save COMPANIES from not contributing to employees, because they both pay into Social Security. If anybody thinks they'll do better with their own pension, I urge you to watch the stock market and those disappearing employer contributions to 401Ks.
He wants to allow you to opt out for the same reason employers got rid of defined benefit pension plans. It benefits employers, not employees. Anybody remember when 401Ks came out? Companies promised they'd contribute to your pension and you'd do better than defined benefit pension plans. Guess what? They reneged on that.
thesquanderer
(12,002 posts)To be clear: I am NOT endorsing RP's position. I was just saying that he never (AFAIK) suggested that people voluntarily refuse SS payments they are eligible for, nor do I feel it is hypocritical for him to take the SS payments he is eligible for, having paid into the system for 50 years, even if he was philosophically against paying into that system.
freedom fighter jh
(1,782 posts)Just what you said, but I can't resist another metaphor.
If you're at student living on campus in a dorm you may feel you could eat better with a microwave oven and a refrigerator in your room than you can eat in the cafeteria. But if the rules force you to be on a meal plan, and your parents have paid for it, of course you're going to eat in the cafeteria. You could take part in student protests against meal plan rules, but eating the food you (or your parents) have paid for would not make you a hypocrite.
I've got plenty of problems with Ron Paul, but his collecting social security is not one of them.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)to elaborate on your metaphor, the reason why these hypothetical on-campus students would have to pay for a meal plan is because the university's cost to provide dining is equally spread out among all the on-campus students, whether they take advantage of it or not...
If said student preferred eating on his or her own and skipping the caf entirely, that's their business, but it's a waste of money...and YES, a student with the stones to protest meal plan fees that mommy and daddy pay for (not to mention the extra $$$$ they send junior every week so he can order Dominoes) is the height of hypocrisy
freedom fighter jh
(1,782 posts)From Merriam-Webster's on-line dictionary: "hypocrisy: a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not; especially : the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion."
Where's the feigning? Maybe Junior just wants to save some bucks for Mom and Dad, who are contributing to tuition that Junior could never afford him/herself. Where's the hypocrisy?
Or maybe I should just admit that The Squaderer had a better metaphor and leave it at that.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)mom and dad money on one end (in the name of fiscal responsibility), without junior realizing he's costing them double by always eating out...
I don't need the M-W cut-and-paste, but thanks anyways...
The point is still that a jaggoff like Paul has no right to say how evil these programs are while he benefits on the sly...
freedom fighter jh
(1,782 posts)He doesn't like a program that takes his money, sits on it for years, and then pays it back. How does that mean there's anything wrong with taking it back?
Not trying to say I agree with him on Social Security. I just don't see the hypocrisy. I don't see any falseness or pretense.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)how many times did he ever mention it in all those thousands of speeches to the various "Abolish all government programs" groups?? How many times has he parroted the "SS is a ponzi scheme" myth?
And of course Paul isn't going to like a program that takes his money, sits on it for years, and then pays it back (nevermind the fact that SS only takes from his on-the-books money, which is maybe 10 percent of his total income), because it's not like he's worried about a comfortable retirement since he hasn't had to put in a real day's work in his 30+ years in the house...And the only reason Paul even gives a shit is because it's "his" tax money -- If he was somehow exempt from paying it, he'd think it was the greatest thing in the world and STILL collect at the end of the day...
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)This is Ron fuckin' "ALL BIG GUMMITT IS EVUL!" Paul...The hardliner's hardliner...The proverbial libertarian who'd let his house burn down before calling the fire department...
If he gets to collect, motherfuck him for trying to close the window for the rest of us...
freshstart
(265 posts)They want...but want to block the rest of us.
freshstart
(265 posts)Would you do the same while trying to convince others that it is a ponzie scheme if you understood how Social Security works?
freshstart
(265 posts)because he's a corporate stooge. He knows that the employer contributes under SS....and under private plans...what forces them to do so? We all know what happened to those matching contributions to employee's 401K plans from their employers....they've been reduced..or are non-existent now.
This is from Ron Paul's Freeman website. He's pushing via Doug Bandow, the Cato idiot that was writing op-eds favorable to Casino Jack Abramoff for cash that was on Ron Paul's campaign...that Social Security is a ponzi scheme.
http://www.thefreemanonline.org/columns/uncle-sams-retirement-scam/
Hypocrite isn't quite strong enough for me
Doug Bandow Policy advisor to Ron Paul:
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?108392-Ron-Paul-Campaign-Announces-Addition-of-New-Policy-Advisors
Scroll down to see the article, Bandow writes articles for Jack Abramoff for cash.
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/dec2005/nf20051216_1037_db016.htm
freshwest
(53,661 posts)freshstart
(265 posts)I've done tons of research on the phony Ron Paul and what I know about him makes me sick. I'm happy to share
newspeak
(4,847 posts)hell, my FIL lost most of his company investments in allegheny airline. Oh, look it's all your fault for investing in the wrong deregulated corporation. Who knew they were blatant crooks. No guaranteed SS, be prepared for the wolves to feast on the elderly.
ProfessionalLeftist
(4,982 posts)Since he considers it "slavery"?
Pfft.
enough
(13,273 posts)It's only slavery if you take it while you need it.
onehandle
(51,122 posts)His sheep-ass worshipers are total morons.
But they're 'Libertarians,' so that goes without saying, except I did.
aint_no_life_nowhere
(21,925 posts)I've never met one.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)But republicans who want to smoke pot and get laid
calimary
(81,612 posts)And they don't want to go to war.
But the policies they love would gladly make it so that the rest of us would have to.
I always thought libertarians were simply republi-CONS too ashamed to admit their party affiliations in public.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)I forgot about the war thing. Besides pot and war, they want exactly what the pukes want.
calimary
(81,612 posts)especially in the senior class where they were 18 or turning 18, were all enthralled by ron paul because he was against war and pro pot. I told him he should tell his friends there's a LOT more to him than that, and most of it extremely icky, not to mention ridiculously unrealistic and unworkable.
Libertarians don't realize that what they're really yowling and whining for is Somalia.
No government.
No public works.
No laws or regulations.
A few rich and powerful warlords control everything.
Pirates running amok all over the place.
Millions of poor, starving, sick, displaced, homeless.
Millions of refugees - THEIR 99%.
Total anarchy.
And all the fucking guns you can eat, everywhere you look.
Sounds like the America they all dream about.
avebury
(10,953 posts)Zoeisright
(8,339 posts)But I repeat myself.
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)Swede Atlanta
(3,596 posts)So are we saying that he gets to collect Social Security plus a bloated pension as a Congresscritter? Talk about milking the public cow dry.
I'm sure he would argue that someone who worked for a corporation for x years and was collecting a pension and was also collecting a pension from service in Congress is the same as him.
The problem with that is his pension from Congress is extremely generous.
Dokkie
(1,688 posts)of reasons not to like Ron Paul(just look at his domestic policy - war on drugs) but you don't have to resort to making things up. He doesn't participate the congressional pension and that is one of his stump speech on the campaign trail (that's when hes not talking about monetary policy)
Quote from Wikipedia
Long time congressman Ron Paul has always refused to participate in the congressional pension system, labeling it "immoral".[5] North Carolina congressman Howard Coble does not participate in the pension system, either. [6] He campaigned against the system in his first campaign in 1984.[6]
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)wordpix
(18,652 posts)You can start at 62, no earlier.
freshstart
(265 posts)to collect SS. He was born in 1935.
They_Live
(3,250 posts)Ron Paul. heh. Shut up. Hypocrite.
OnlinePoker
(5,730 posts)When push comes to shove, Libertarians will take "their" money the same as the next guy. The hypocrisy is sickening.
freshstart
(265 posts)bingo..You've got it
AynRandCollectedSS
(108 posts)Pissed me off so much I made a whole FB page dedicated to it!
We get several people a week yapping about how it wasn't hypocritical because she paid into it. Total BS. She didn't take it until she HAD to and also let Mediciad pay for her lung Cancer surgery. She smoked 2 packs a day, was a speed freak and when the hag got sick she let the government bail her out. Ayn was a moocher AND a total failure as a philosopher because her own life thoroughly disproved her theories.
truthisfreedom
(23,169 posts)He pays more in SS than he gets in checks, per month. Why are we wasting our time on this?
freshstart
(265 posts)please explain how he pays more than he gets.
Heywood J
(2,515 posts)Isn't that how SSDI is covered?
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)Revenues. Good gravy, this is basic stuff.
http://www.ssa.gov/ssi/
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)Besides, the GOP is STILL getting daily mileage out of hammering Obama's "non-issues" 5 years after the fact...
Tikki
(14,565 posts)Maybe churches talk about hypocrisy without quoting the bible. Schools speak on it.
Government takes a No Hypocrisy pledge. Something....Anything.
Tikki
just1voice
(1,362 posts)They are vile humans. He knows 70% of Americans retire with $30,000 or less and yet he thinks they deserve no form of retirement income other than what a corrupted, "deregulated" system would somehow not steal from them.
SkyDaddy7
(6,045 posts)JOKE! Most of his supporters are extremely ignorant to who Ron Paul is, to his past & to the many personal connections he has to Neo-Confederates & Neo-Nazis!
The man wants to return to the days when states were not bound to comply with the Bill of Rights...And his utterly ignorant fans either refuse to accept this fact or try to say we would have more individual freedoms if states were allowed to discriminate anyway they choose!
Ron Paul is a JOKE...And he is only a joke right now because he lacks the supporters to give him any power otherwise he would be a massive threat to anyone not white, male & Christian!
The Jungle 1
(4,552 posts)How many folks on Medicare were screaming that the healthcare bill was socialism.
Is corporate welfare socialism?
Arugula Latte
(50,566 posts)Welcome to DU!
aint_no_life_nowhere
(21,925 posts)arcane1
(38,613 posts)I didn't even know that was possible... I always associated Social Security with people who really need it; I had no idea you could earn six figures and still get a check! And those are six tax-funded figures that already include lifetime healthcare!!
He doesn't even need that money, but he takes it anyway. That's more slimy than the hypocrisy itself!
lovuian
(19,362 posts)that really is what he is
tawadi
(2,110 posts)freshstart
(265 posts)I would have said I second that
progressoid
(50,034 posts)Ron Paul is worth up to $5.2 million
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2012/05/ron-paul-net-worth-gold-/1#.T-KL9PV618E
freshstart
(265 posts)Nelson Bunker Hunt has been tied to Ron Paul for years. And, this is a guy who manipulated the silver market with the help of none other than the Federal Reserve.
I surely wouldn't be following Ron Paul's advice to buy precious metals.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=TbRPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=LgYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3711,3390612&dq=nelson+bunker+hunt+federal+reserve&hl=en
Jimbo S
(2,961 posts)He paid into it, so may as well receive the benefits he earned.
elleng
(131,459 posts)harun
(11,348 posts)it would kick in under that scenario.
JustABozoOnThisBus
(23,387 posts)He's over 65.
For me, the full retirement age is 66.
For you youngsters (and get off my lawn!), the age is 67 or maybe more.
But once you are at full retirement age, your SS benefit is not reduced by outside income, if I understand this stuff correctly. I guess I better find out before I turn 66.
Anyway, Ron Paul is entitled to all the benefits of big government: Social security, good Congress-person health insurance, Congressional retirement pay. So taxpayers support him while he talks the libertarian talk.
elleng
(131,459 posts)Methinks the rules should change: Even if at the age, if gainfully employed (receiving more than SS benefit,) SS should NOT pay.
P.S., I'm at full retirement age, and received SS before FULL age because I needed it. THANK YOU, Feds!
mysuzuki2
(3,521 posts)there is no limit on earnings while collecting SS.
sendero
(28,552 posts)... like most libertarians.
SHRED
(28,136 posts)What a weasel.
greiner3
(5,214 posts)Brings up various amounts Ron Paul is listed re; net worth;
3 Million
4.9 Million
His 3,000/month check is certainly going to help him pay rent/food and incidentals!
UglyGreed
(7,661 posts)a six million dollar mansion after his 2008 run for POTUS how can his net worth be only 4.9 million? I'm not a millionaire so am I missing something? Did the Campaign For Liberty buy it?
Skinner
(63,645 posts)You get a mortgage. The bank puts up the money for the house and you have thirty years to pay for it.
UglyGreed
(7,661 posts)I thought net worth would include properties you may own but I could be wrong. I must add what bank would give a 76 year old man a thirty year mortgage? I have look into how he bought the home.
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)UglyGreed
(7,661 posts)Thanks. So if he did not buy the mansion his net worth would close to nine or ten million..... if he borrowed the whole six million of course. I've heard that he made over twenty million on his Newsletters that he disavowed. Wonder what happened to that cash or was that just a rumor?
marble falls
(57,663 posts)The Jungle 1
(4,552 posts)We are broke remember. There is no reason my money should be paid out to the wealthy. Means test for SS and Medicare.
Bottom line is you don't always get a return on your tax dollars.
Fire Walk With Me
(38,893 posts)ZombieHorde
(29,047 posts)His opinion is not that people should pay and then not receive benefits, his opinion is the program should be cut.
Response to Galraedia (Original post)
Post removed
Tsiyu
(18,186 posts)If he really wants to be Billy the Libertarian Badass, why not live according to his principles?
He doesn't want health inspectors paid for by the US Government making sure his beef doesn't have maggots in it?
He hires his own fucking inspector.
He wants to use the highways for free? Get a helicopter or a cowpony and stay off the roads the rest of us are happy to chip in to maintain. No grinding down our taxpayer funded asphalt with any company trucks, tour busses or fancy shmancy RVs.
Don't want the government to pay for essential infrastructure? Stay off bridges, sidewalks, don't use the crapper and watch out for that courthouse ceiling about to fall on your dumbass head.
Oh, wait. Who needs courtrooms in Libertarian Fantasy Land? Government waste! Potential corruption! Let the Free Market - where there is never, ever, ever, ever, EVER any corruption or waste that actually HURTS anybody - let that benevolent, pure, practically divine Free Market handle everything!
You want a place where you can shoot a kid dead just for going through the McDonald's bag that flitters out of your trash can? Where a human life isn't worth even as much as your lawnmower?
Move to Fucking Somalia.
Childish egocentric ignorance - calling itself "freedom and liberty" - is for losers. Free-for-all social Darwinism is destroying our economy and our communities.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)Couldn't find a good link from Alex Jones?
The Paul cultist forums are over there...
UglyGreed
(7,661 posts)Mr Christian Reconstructionist and anonymous racist Newsletter author and you don't trust him?
SnakeEyes
(1,407 posts)Not hypocritical at all.
harmonicon
(12,008 posts)I don't think the 1980's counts as distant past yet, and that's when i learned what cheques were, and how to spell the word. Somehow, recently, the world has become too stupid to have two spellings for words that are pronounced the same way. That's the main thing I bemoan from this story. Two-bit hypocrite congressman is a hypocrite? That's less important to me.
Prometheus Bound
(3,489 posts)high density
(13,397 posts)but I should not expect that the 30-somethings who will be around in 2040 when I retire will be willing to do the same for me... Wonderful. If given the option I'd probably opt out, since the GOP is pushing that I should expect my return on these payments to be zero. Fox Nation thinks that is just great and is eager to elect these nuts to dismantle it all.
jade3000
(238 posts)As New Yorkers like to say: are you fucking SERIOUS RIGHT NOW?
This man's career is built on principles, but when it comes to collecting money from the gov't he's ok with it?! Sad.
Jerry Frey
(32 posts)Ron Paul reminds me of some 30s character actor in black and white. The Libertarian Partys presidential candidate in 1988 has dveloped a fervent cult following that perhaps has developed into a lasting movement.
http://napoleonlive.info/politics/ron-paul/
Tsiyu
(18,186 posts)There are too many people on government assistance who are about to cast a vote to essentially do away with their own financial security.
Paul will be fine. But all the seniors and younger -than-seniors he has convinced to vote away Social Security will not be fine.
Now I hear they have a rival to the AARP - a similar "conservative" group. So a bunch of old fools will sign up for their own poverty. Gladly. Because that'll show those liberals!
I just don't get the stupidity. Surely the people on Social Security and Disability turn off their TVs and radios every now and again and THINK about it all, no?
Ter
(4,281 posts)Why should he tell the government to keep it?
Rex
(65,616 posts)That should be a good reason.
Ter
(4,281 posts)If he didn't, then I would understand. But he did. It's his money.
Rex
(65,616 posts)A total scumbag.