The job 'Have-Nots' - a brilliant examination of the GOP's cruel mindset-Drug Testing

[sgreger1]

Maybe you can revive the Nazi party and Eugenics? Kill all the undesirables.

You mean like Margaret Sanger from planned parenthood?

[danielan]

No, FICA is Social Security and Medicare.

Unless you are an employer you don't directly pay for unemployment insurance - your employer pays it on your behalf.

[sgreger1]

"FICA is the acronym for the Federal Insurance Contributions Act. This act mandates that an employer withhold a set percentage of an employee’s salary each pay period. FICA also requires that the employer match the employee’s amount and contribute the money to a government account known as the Social Security Trust Fund. This fund provides retirement income, as well as disability insurance, Medicare, and benefits for survivors.

FICA was the result of the Social Security Act of 1935, proposed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt." etc

The answer to your questions: As with any legislation, more and more bennies are tacked on ad infinitum (yes, every time the pols turn around.)!!

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-fica.htm

My problem:

1)Gov benefit (social security, unemployment) money taken from check
2)Congress extends amount of benefit money it gives out
3)Amount taken from check does not increase
4)=deficit in benefits programs

[snusgetter]

Correctomundo!!

No, FICA is Social Security and Medicare.

Unless you are an employer you don't directly pay for unemployment insurance - your employer pays it on your behalf.

You're absolutely correct, Dan, but bureaucrats like wordiness:

"What does FICA mean and why are Social Security taxes called FICA contributions?

Social Security payroll taxes are collected under authority of the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA). The payroll taxes are sometimes even called "FICA taxes."

In the original 1935 law the benefit provisions were in Title II of the Act (which is why we sometimes call Social Security the "Title II" program.) The taxing provisions were in a separate title, Title VIII. There is a deep reason for this, having to do with the constitutionality of the law (see discussion of the Constitutionality of the 1935 Act).

As part of the 1939 Amendments, the Title VIII taxing provisions were taken out of the Social Security Act and placed in the Internal Revenue Code. Since it wouldn't make any sense to call this new section of the Internal Revenue Code "Title VIII," it was renamed the "Federal Insurance Contributions Act."

The payroll taxes collected for Social Security are of course taxes, but they can also be described as contributions to the social insurance system that is Social Security. Hence the name "Federal Insurance Contributions Act."

So FICA is nothing more than the tax provisions of the Social Security Act, as they appear in the Internal Revenue Code." http://www.ssa.gov/mystatement/fica.htm

Again, though, as with any legislation, more and more bennies are tacked on ad infinitum!

[tom502]

Maybe you can revive the Nazi party and Eugenics? Kill all the undesirables.

Obama is doing it, but the opposite way, he's allowing the less intelligent and able to overtake the able and intelligent. Soon, the US will be a 3rd world nation, no English either.

[danielan]

You're absolutely correct, Dan, but bureaucrats like wordiness:

I think we're agreeing here.

Basically there are 3 programs (for the purposes of this conversation):

1. Social Security - Retirement + Disability, federal program, funded via FICA deduction, you see on your pay stub
2. Medicare - Medical insurance for retired and a couple other categories, federal program, funded via FICA deduction, you see in your pay stub
3. Unemployment Insurance - State program, federal mandate, paid by employer, you don't see in your pay stub

Where the feds get involved is that they can give the states extra money to extend benefits past the mandated 26 weeks.

To do this, they must put up the cash. This is what they didn't do this time. So, unless the states want to put up the cash, the extension past 2 years didn't happen.

[GoVegan]

Obama is doing it, but the opposite way, he's allowing the less intelligent and able to overtake the able and intelligent. Soon, the US will be a 3rd world nation, no English either.

Whats the alternative? Things in this country got much worse under Reagan and Bush II. I was actually relieved when Obama got elected. The Republicans always talk crap about our government being too big, imposing and expensive but then don't do anything about it except for make things worse. I don't think Obama is a saint but we would have been screwed had the McCain/Palin ticket won!

[WickedKitchen]

I think we were screwed either way.

[GoVegan]

I think we were screwed either way.

I can't argue with that.

[Jimbob_Rebel]

You don't pay the tax DIRECTLY as an employee,but who knows where wages might be or how many more jobs there would be without it?. Kinda like renters chuckling over the fact they don't pay property tax never giving thought to the fact that it's included in their rent.

[Jimbob_Rebel]

Whats the alternative? Things in this country got much worse under Reagan and Bush II. I was actually relieved when Obama got elected. The Republicans always talk crap about our government being too big, imposing and expensive but then don't do anything about it except for make things worse. I don't think Obama is a saint but we would have been screwed had the McCain/Palin ticket won!

McInsane/Palin would have done the same thing Obama's doing which is basically a continuation of what Bush did. Both partys have embraced war,deficit spending, and transfer of wealth from the middle class to everyone else including "impoverished" bankers. Neither party has the political will to stop. The democrats would become extinct if they stopped catering to their constituency which might be characterized as "clients" of the welfare state and both parties are beholden to corporate welfare clients as was evinced by the fact that McInsane and Obama both went to the mat for TARP. I havn't even mentioned yet Eisenhower's military/industrial complex and our forever wars.

Since neither party will cut spending, they are going to have to tax, borrow, or create money. Taxation is politically sensitive and once it gets so high reaches a point of diminishing returns as the activity being taxed encourages cessation or evasion. Borrowing, assuming the chinese are dumb enough to keep buying our treasury notes, will ensure that a larger and larger portion of the federal budget goes towards paying interrest on the debt. Which brings us to our last option, when foriegn creditors finally do wise up, then our own central bank will buy treasury notes that no one else will buy the same way they bought all those worthless derivatives from the banks. Then we'll have mass inflation.............not that prices will actually be going up, prices could actually come down in real terms of un-inflated dollars, but the money supply will increase and each individual dollar will become worth less. Beyond that is hyper-inflation or weimar republic style inflation. In any event, the gravy train is coming off the tracks. Will the center hold?

[snusgetter]

Obfuscation Rules, dontchano...

You don't pay the tax DIRECTLY as an employee,but who knows where wages might be or how many more jobs there would be without it?. Kinda like renters chuckling over the fact they don't pay property tax never giving thought to the fact that it's included in their rent.

Bureaucrats like wordiness and politicians are bureaucrats who have mastered the art of hiding their true intentions; they know the average citizen won't wade through alldemwurds but rely on the sound-bites spoon fed to them by their favorite media.

Otherwise, their constituents might better understand what's really happening and have little excuse to avoid or neglect their responsibilities. But, then again, is this the American way?