By Dan McGinnis | Yahoo! Contributor Network
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COMMENTARY | Social Security is not an entitlement -- it is an obligation.
It infuriates me every time I hear someone in Washington refer to Social Security as one of the entitlement programs. When I look at my paycheck stub, I see a mandatory deduction for Social Security. I have no voice in the amount or how it is invested or what I will receive in return.
Every year around my birthday, the government sends me a statement in the mail with the estimate of how much I will get each year when I receive my Social Security checks. That is not an entitlement; the government has been taking my money since I got my first job at age 14.
Maybe one of the problems in the halls of Congress is that they need to draw some of that Social Security to understand the pains the American people have every single time we hear that they might adjust the retirement age a little higher, reduce benefits, suspend a cost-of-living adjustment or -- as they are currently threatening -- delay making the monthly payment to seniors.
Members of Congress do not participate in the Social Security program. They have their own pension plan for federal workers. How nice. But if Social Security is the mandatory safety net retirement benefit for Americans, then all Americans need to participate in it.
I doubt the Social Security trust fund would have been raided -- or placed in the dire condition it is today -- if members of Congress had to pay into the system as well. They are masters at protecting their own skins, so I've got to believe they would have insured the trust fund was in good condition all along.
Too late for that. Oh well, it was a good idea. Here's another one: force them to join the Social Security system today and I bet they'll have it fixed before the end of the year.
So, stop calling Social Security an entitlement. It is an obligation my country owes to every single senior citizen who has contributed throughout their lifetime to support the generation before them. It's their money and the government has no greater responsibility then to provide for those who have provided for it throughout their life.
# For more articles by Dan McGinnis, visit: http://contributor.yahoo.com/user/1053212/dan_mcginnis.shtml
Spot on! It angers me to no end to hear that SS is an "entitlement". Always has, always will!
ReplyDeleteNo, it is not en entitlement. It's theft. It is not an obligation. Frankly, not a single American owes any other American a damn thing. The Government does not pay Social Security, every single working person is forced, with few exceptions, to pay Social Security taxes. Those monies are the immediately redistributed. Wealth redistribution is A: Socialism and B: Theft.
ReplyDeleteOh, I am not arguing the fact that people have contributed. However, you apparently do not understand that the Social Security fund is empty. All the monies paid in today are immediately sent out to those who get SS. What are you, a Socialist? Social Security is was and ever shall be one of the largest Ponzi schemes ever perpetrated upon the US Citizenry. Do better research before posting an Op Ed of this nature.
It saddens me that you and others like you think you are owed something. If anything, the Government needs to open the Social Security books, pay out all monies collected to those that are owed the monies in one lump sum and dismantle the program. Oh wait - they could never possibly do that. The Social Security program is running at a deficit.
One of the biggest problems is all those who have contributed little or nothing to Social Security who are drawing funds ("benefits") from it. I am not talking about widows and orphans or dependent children of contributors. I am talking about all the others - such as illegal aliens included who have never contributed a cent and have no family member who has contributed a cent either.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Social security should not be called "an entitlement program", however...
ReplyDeleteCongress has been paying into social security since 1984. They no longer have CSRS. The problem is we pay Congress WAY too much to do nothing.