From CNBC:
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz accepted the Democratic vice presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night.
In his speech, Walz credited a particular source of support for helping to get his family to where they are today — Social Security survivor benefits.
His father died of lung cancer when Walz was 19, leaving a “mountain of medical debt,” Walz said. Social Security benefits allowed his family, including his mother and younger brother, to “live with dignity,” he recently posted on social media.
“Thank God for Social Security survivor benefits,” Walz said during his Wednesday night speech. ...
9 comments:
People forget about them when they say how much more they'd make if they could invest their SSA tax themselves.
Social Security is the best insurance option of them all. You don't pay the full premium if you are an employee. It pays you to stay alive rather than only after you die. If you die young it provides benefits for your surviving minor children and your spouse who takes care of them. If you die old it can provide for your surviving spouse. If you are stricken during your working years, it will pay you a decent benefit. It is true that some people never collect a dime but that is how any insurance works and that is what SS is, an insurance program. Try to find a better insurance policy.
It’s by far the best value in insurance on planet, and by far the most efficiently run as well when comparing its operating expenses to the assets it manages and benefits it administers. Only the ignorant and misinformed could conclude otherwise.
Survivor benefits, indeed. It paid for my college education in the 1970s after my father died. Now that benefit is gone, with the money reallocated for what?
Former Senator Al Franken has a similar story as Tim Walz. The public would be surprised on how Social Security has saved many individuals from poverty. Hopefully, under new leadership in Congress especially in the House of Representatives and a Democratic President the funding issues will be addressed.
@Jim Cook The money would just be paid for other benefits. There was no set trust fund for student benefits. I only started working for SSA when student benefits were being phased out. From what I heard they were difficult to administer as students would drop out, cut back to less than full time, etc (make many changes as young folks are prone to do) without notifying SSA.
@1:58 Interesting, when I was a student in the early 2000s, I always took an extra class or two with the intention of dropping a class or two because it wasn't really possible to get a good read on the professor until you actually attended. I can imagine that would be awful to administer efficiently.
@1129 It was difficult to administer. The benefits were ended after the war in Vietnam. I wonder if there was any connection in either ending them after the war or continuing them through the war
I had a friend in college that waited to get married, (people married much younger in those days) in order for his girl friend later wife to continue to receive benefits on her deceased father's record.
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