Chris Christie calls for raising ages for Social Security, Medicare

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie began a two-day trip to the first primary state Tuesday morning by calling for means testing for Social Security, raising the retirement age for Social Security to 69 and gradually raising the eligibility age for Medicare. Christie delivered a speech at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College. Read more…

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Comments On This Topic

  1. Gov. Christie, like 99.9% of elected officials in the U.S. does not understand the implications of being off the gold standard, domestic and international. Under a gold standard bank funding can’t be credibly guaranteed. In fact, fixed exchange rate regimes by design operate with an ongoing constraint on the supply side of the convertible currency. Gold is not in infinite supply. Banks are required to hold reserves of convertible currency, to be able to be able to meet depositor’s demands for withdrawals. Confidence is critical for banks working under a gold standard.

    Under a fiat currency system like we have had since 1933 for domestic purposes and 1971 for international purposes, the Federal government NEVER needs to tax, “borrow” or enforce austerity to complete the act of spending. Why not? Because the government issues the currency by spending it into the economy as payment for goods and services sold to it by the private sector. Yes, the government must spend its fiat currency before it can tax. That logical operational sequence escapes Christie and most others who, wrongly, believe that the government is monetarily constrained to fund itself. It is not. All the government needs to complete the act of spending is a Congressional appropriation. And in some cases an appropriation is unnecessary. Bernanke, issued $29 Trillion to bail out the domestic and part of the international financial sector. Bernanke told Scott Pelley during a “60 Minutes” interview in 2009, ” … no it’s not tax money.” He said, ” … we use our computers to mark up checking accounts.” The U.S. can’t collect that much tax revenue in five years.

    The point, is simply that there are no operational reasons to believe SS is a burden to the budget or that it is in danger of becoming insolvent. This fact is irrefutable. The SS Trust Fund is not a checking account. It’s simply a spreadsheet, a record of flows that have absolutely no bearing on the payments to pensioners, beneficiaries, etc. All of those payments are made from the Treasury’s General Fund Account, just like all other payments to fund the Federal government.

    As long as this society is economically productive there is no threat of government insolvency unless Congress decides to withhold appropriations.

    Gov. Christie would do well to request a briefing on the implications of America becoming monetarily sovereign and why deficit spending by the Federal Government is an absolute requirement if we are to avoid stagnation, recession and depression.

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