[saymaListserv] Fwd: Re: Fw: Social Security

Wed Jan 18 15:29:37 EST 2006

Dear Friends, Daryl Bergquist and one of my sons have written to say that
Snopes.com (urban legends) indicates that this 
e-mail is not factual.  I know from previous 
research that the basic issues are correct, so it 
may be that the numbers and /or the details are 
off.  In any case, I have looked at Snopes.com 
(urban legends) and a couple of other resources 
and found most of the info needed to correct this 
message:

The reality is that members of Congress 
do,indeed, pay into Social Security, but it is 
also true that they have both a separate federal 
worker's pension system and an annuity trust as 
retirement benefits in addition to the Social 
Security benefits for which they are eligible. 
The Amount of Social Security they receive 
reduces by the same amount their government 
pension amount, but it does not in any way affect 
their annuity trust payouts. The total payout can 
easily amount to more than a million dollars if 
they serve in Congress as young persons and have 
a normal life span.

As Dilbert author/artist Scott Adams indicates in 
a quote shown below, the average salary /pension 
collected by members of Congress in 1996 (ten 
years ago) was a "modest" $40,000, and the 
average annuity paid out was $47 to $50,000 a 
year plus  cost of living adjustments and 
additions related to length of service per year. 
Adams says that this is "about two to three times 
the amount of pension collected by the average 
worker".

The average Social Security Disability/ Retirement payment is $800 a month
($9,600 a year).  It is also increased by annual 
cost of living adjustments, but it is then 
REDUCED by the constantly rising cost of Medicare 
coverage which is automatically deducted.  For 
example my Social Security payment amounts to 
$907.50 AFTER being raised to reflect the COLA of 
4.1%  It is then REDUCED by $88.50 PER MONTH to 
pay for my Medicare benefits so I end up with 
$819 a month to live on.  My disabled son 
receives the same amount. I invite you all to 
find a place to live, pay for heat and light, buy 
enough food to eat and have the necessary towels, 
blankets, household and toiletry items AND live 
close enough to the doctors and hospitals you 
depend on for healthcare, AND pay the amount 
required to fill your prescriptions each month. 
(I just had a $200 bill for prescription 
medications this month) It is just not possible 
to live on that amount unless you are partially 
supported by family.  Many disabled and retired 
people no longer have any family.  THEY are the 
majority of the people who are homeless and out 
on the streets of Atlanta and every other major 
city and town in the US. The real point of that 
e-mailed message I sent out was that if the 
members of Congress had to live on what Social 
Security retirees live on they would fix the 
Social Security system.  That premise still holds 
and is actually strengthened by the queries of 
people who just don't want to believe it is so.
				Janet Minshall

from Snopes.com/politics/taxes/pensions.asp:

	It is not true that Congressmen do not 
pay into the Social Security fund. Since 1984 
they have paid into the fund just as most 
everyone else does. (A few odd exceptions to the 
Social Security program still exist, both inside 
and outside of government, but not for members of 
Congress.)

*	It was true prior to 1984 that 
Congressmen did not pay into the Social Security 
fund because they participated in a separate 
program for civil servants (the Civil Service 
Retirement System, or CSRS), but that program was 
closed to government employees hired after 1983:

In 1983, Public Law 98-21 required Social 
Security coverage for federal civilian employees 
first hired after 1983 and closed the Civil 
Service Retirement System (CSRS) to new federal 
employees and Members of Congress. All incumbent 
Members of Congress were required to be covered 
by Social Security, regardless of when they 
entered Congress. Members who had participated in 
CSRS before 1984 could elect to stay in that plan 
in addition to being covered by Social Security 
or elect coverage under an 'offset plan' that 
integrates CSRS and Social Security. Under the 
CSRS Offset Plan, an individual's contributions 
to CSRS and their pension benefits from that plan 
are reduced ('offset') by the amount of their 
contributions to, and benefits from, Social 
Security.

*	It is not true that Congressmen "continue 
to draw their same pay, until they die." The size 
of their pensions is determined by a number of 
factors (primarily length of service, but also 
factors such as when they joined Congress, their 
age at retirement, their salary, and the pension 
options they chose when they enrolled in the 
retirement system) and by law cannot exceed 80% 
of their salary at the time of their retirement.

*	It is not true that Congressmen "paid 
nothing in on any kind of retirement," and that 
their pension money "comes right out of the 
General Fund." Whether members of Congress 
participate in the older Civil Service Retirement 
System or the newer Federal Employees' Retirement 
System (FERS), their pensions are funded through 
a combination of general tax provisions and 
contributions from the participants. Right now, 
members of Congress in the FERS plan must pay 
1.3% of their salary to FERS and 6.2% in Social 
Security taxes.

It
Shinola Suggests...
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without ...
Malcolm Gladwell
Drawing on cutting-edge neuroscience and 
psychology, the author shows how the difference 
between good decision-making and bad has nothing 
to do with how much information that ...

Dilbert: I Love My Coworkers until They ...
Scott Adams
Scott Adams is a native of New York State and a 
veteran of Corporate America's banking and 
technology sectors. He created Dilbert as a 
doodle while working for Pacific Bell and began 
... is true that, if current pension levels and 
cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) for Congress 
members continue to apply in the future, some 
former members of Congress could conceivably 
collect millions of dollars in annuities over the 
course of their lifetimes. However, the huge 
dollar amounts bandied about in e-mails like the 
ones quoted above are based upon extreme cases: 
those of politicians who entered Congress at a 
relatively early age, served for several decades, 
and retired while still young enough to 
potentially live for another several decades. 
These cases are the rare exceptions, based upon 
the hypothetical assumption that a few 
long-serving members of Congress who retired 
while in their mid-50s will live well past the 
age of 80. (Even the person who collects a modest 
salary/pension of $40,000 per year stands to take 
in a million dollars over the course of 25 years.)
As of 1998, the average annuity for retired 
members of Congress was $50,616 for those who 
retired under CSRS and $46,908 for those who 
retired under FERS. Those figures are quite good 
(about 2-3 times better than the pension 
collected by the average worker), but not quite 
the highway robbery these e-mails make them out 
to be.
Additional information:  
    	Congressional Pensions
(C-SPAN)
    	Retirement Benefits for Members of Congress
(United States Senate)
    	Do Members of Congress Pay Social Security Taxes?
(National Taxpayers' Union)Last updated:   21 February 2005
The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/politics/taxes/pensions.asp
Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2006
by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson

Hi Daryl, I'll be happy to correct it.  In fact, 
I'm going to do some research to make any 
corrections necessary.  It will take a few days 
but I plan to do it as quickly as I can.  Janet

According to snopes (urban legends) website this article is not factual.  Daryl

<http://www.snopes.com/politics/taxes/pensions.asp>http://www.snopes.com/politics/taxes/pensions.asp

Janet Minshall wrote:

Fwd: Re: Fw: Social Security
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