Rangel: SS benefit cuts, retirement age hikes necessary

We must alter Soc Sec, Rangel says

Raising retirement age or reducing benefits can't be ruled out if the Social Security system is to be saved from going bust, Rep. Charles Rangel said yesterday.

"All of these things are on the table to find some way to make certain that Social Security is solvent," said Rangel, who is poised to take control of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.

Rangel (D-Harlem) discussed the fate of Social Security - which some have estimated will have a cash-flow problem as soon as 2017 and run out of money by 2040 - during a Manhattan breakfast talk sponsored by Crain's New York.

Any solution will cause some pain, according to Rangel. "If you call tax increases pain - and I do - that'll be a part of the mix, too," he said. "There's no easy way to do it, but it has to be done."

But the congressman also swore Social Security and Medicare health benefits would not be scrapped entirely. "If you're talking about getting rid of entitlements, forget about it," he said.

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Whoa! Suddenly this government created Ponzi Scheme is in crisis?

But ... but ... two years ago Gramma Pelosi and Paul Krugman assured America that this notion was a concoction of the evil dumbass genius Bush.

At the time, the "imbecile" Bush was promulgating the idea that Americans would be better off if they had a say in how their payroll taxes were invested. Yes -- GULP -- the lumpen masses would have some control over their lives.

No go for the party of Government, the folks who pay lip service to the "middle class" but clearly do not trust them to plan for their own Golden Years.

Ladies and Gentlemen and other, we give you Charles Rangel, your next Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Gonna be a long two years.