Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/04/826961777/u-s-may-get-more-ventilators-but-run-out-of-medicine-for-covid-19-patients

I had not realized that patients on ventilators are heavily sedated.

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/04/826961777/u-s-may-get-more-ventilators-but-run-out-of-medicine-for-covid-19-patients

I had not realized that patients on ventilators are heavily sedated.

Yeah, they have to be. It's akin to being intubated during surgery, but only after you're out cold. It's much worse though, I'm told.

My DIL is an ER nurse. Hearing her explain it was disturbing.

Yeah, when I had my back surgery I was under for 7.5 hours, and intubated. I had a "sore throat" for a few days afterward.

Some of these patients are so severe though, there isn't time to put them "out" before invading. That's where it's a very tough job for the providers.

And Congress did NOT "spend the surplus".  That is idiotic. 

Yeah, they essentially did.

The money that comes in from SS and doesn't go right back out on benefits gets spent by Congress. The treasury gives that money to Congress to spend on whatever Congress wants, and the Treasury issues bonds which are nothing but IOU's backed by the "full faith and credit" of the United States government. Congress has to pay those bonds back with interest. Where do they get the money to pay back that interest? From borrowing it from someone else or from raising taxes. It makes absolutely no sense. It is completely asinine. Robbing from Peter to pay Paul. There is an inherent flaw in that system. The US government shouldn't be touching that money to spend on whatever it pleases every year in it's budget. They spend that money and then have to raise more money by borrowing or taxation just to pay interest on that SS money they just spent on buying $940 hammers for the Pentagon.

It would have been far better off investing that surplus money into a diverse array of actual investments. Real estate, stocks, private loans, etc., etc..

There are a lot of other problems with the program. Millions of manufacturing jobs have been lost/shipped overseas and when the program was enacted there was something like 100 workers paying in for every 1 receiving benefits. The number is way down now as jobs have been lost and the population has gotten older and older and the explosion of the baby boomers coming online and claiming the benefit than ever before. Also- when the program was enacted the average life expectancy in the US was 60 years. Now it's pushing 80. People are living a lot longer today and claiming that benefit for a lot longer than ever before. That's also throwing a monkey wrench in the system.

Raise the tax a little bit and remove the cap, and stop letting Congress touch the money and invest the money in actual- you know- investments.

Bill Gates has been warning about viruses for the last decade. All these videos are old. Why can’t someone like him ever run for President? Probably too smart and decent of a human being to run...


https://youtu.be/6Af6b_wyiwI


https://youtu.be/9AEMKudv5p0


https://youtu.be/as9JRKed7Cs

Raise the tax a little bit and remove the cap

First, @Mdot21 -- I want to give you kudos on an excellent explanation on exactly how Congress has already spent the trust fund. 

However, I ask this regarding removing the cap... If you remove the cap on payroll tax contributions, are you also going to remove the cap on social security benefits? 

Because--if this is an earned benefit related to the amount of money paid into the system, then should those people earning above the cap be accruing additional value over the current maximum benefit? 

The payroll tax cap is ~$130K. The maximum benefit is ~$4K/mo (if you maxed earnings and wait until 70 to retire).

Should someone whose earnings were ~50% higher, say $200K/year, get a ~$6K/mo benefit?

If not, why not?

I read this thing. It was chilling, as to how decisions are made on who gets a ventilator and who does not.

You mean the sort of actuarial math and approach that goes into it?