3293 Social Security

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Virginity is important to men who fear comparison.
-- Silk --

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Congress, those folks with the generous lifetime retirement and medical plans regardless of how long or short a time they HAVE the job, want to cut Social Security benefits and again raise the age at which people can collect. They seem to think that SS is going broke. Or something.

Not true. The real fact is that SS is fine and healthy as it is. The truth is that Congress has "borrowed" enormous funds from SS, which has caused a potential deficit, and they don't want to pay it back. Pure and simple.

For some reason, AARP has backed off their objections to the plan.

From an email letter and news release from the National Retiree Legislative Network (NRLN):

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The NRLN maintains that Social Security is not a welfare program paid for by the U.S. Government. Social Security beneficiaries and their employers have paid into the Social Security Trust since 1937. And every year since 1983, the payroll tax for Social Security has generated tens of billions of dollars in surplus, every dollar of which was borrowed by Congress to cover other federal spending.* In the future, the Social Security Trust should be insulated from access by Congress and never again be loaned out as a piggybank to cover other government spending.
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[* Emphasis mine. That sum "borrowed" and never paid back amounts to something like 1.8 trillion dollars.]

Not a welfare plan. It's more like insurance, an annuity, and those deductions from your paycheck are the premiums. Then if you manage to live until retirement, you get to collect from the retirement insurance you paid for.

Well, yeah. If Congress gives you back your money and stops taking it away from you, that is.

For more information about the NRLN, visit their website at http://www.nrln.org. And write your congressional representatives, the ones who don't understand the financial uncertainties faced by real people.
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