Okay, we ALL know Social Security is in trouble. I am currently 43 but by the time I ready to actually retire, Social Security will be virtually non-existent. We have Democrats to thank for this.
See, Social Security, as a program, was in the black for decades. Begun in 1935, during the depression, President Roosevelt signed Social Security, with Disability insurance being created in 1956. At that time, Social Security taxes (FICA) was 4%. At the present time, we now pay over 10% in payroll taxes towards Social Security and it won't even be there when I and people in my age group are ready to retire.
The powers that be would have us believe Social Security is in trouble because of baby boomers hitting retirement age. While this may be true, there ARE a lot of baby boomers hitting retirement age lately, but these are the same people who have been paying into the system for so long. Shouldn't the money be there? Oh, you'd like to think so, wouldn't you?
In the 1970's, under a Democratic Congress, laws were passed pertaining to Social Security. Some of those laws were to make Social Security part of the federal governments finances. Remember when President Clinton was so proud of the fact he was able to hand a balanced budget to Congress? Wow, wasn't he a GREAT president to do that? What he didn't tell anyone was that it included the funds in Social Security. Since the mid-70's, Congress has been using Social Security as their personal slush fund, which is why it's now in the red. They SAY it's because more money is going out then is coming in because of the baby boomers, when the truth of the matter is this: CONGRESS is spending more Social Security money than is coming in. Here's an article which explains it better than I: How secure is Social Security?
And it was the Dems that accused Reagan and Bush of Voodoo Economics. They tried to present a budget to Congress that WAS balanced and DIDN'T include Social Security. Where's the Voodoo part? Seems to me it was the Dems that were trying to use a little Voodoo magic to make the money in the Social Security coffers disappear.
This seems to be the current hot button issue on the campaign trail since MSNBC had several articles online about it:
Obama to push for higher Social Security taxes
Thompson seeks to alter retiree entitlements
And to drive the point home, the media is jumping on the band wagon to help enforce the belief we the people need to push for higher taxes to cover the losses of Congress.
How much do we need to retire?
Gen Xers not saving for retirement
This is a typical Democratic response to any governmental financial issue: tax and spend, tax and spend. The Democrats keep making expensive mistakes and they just turn to the American public to pay for their mistakes. They are extremely expensive teenagers. Like teenagers, they want what they want when they want it and they don't care who they have to steal the money from to get it. At one time, there was a loophole in the laws that permitted groups to form and invest their FICA on their own. There was a town in Texas that did just that, and made millions in the process. The aforementioned article, "How Secure is Social Security?" has an interesting paragraph in it which illustrates how haphazard our government is being with our money:
A Texas Example
A loophole in the Social Security law once allowed states and municipalities to exempt their government employees from the Social Security system. In 1981, three Texas counties opted out of the federal system and created their own private retirement program. Under the private plan, employees paid the same amount of taxes, but instead of being funneled to Washington D.C., it went to a private insurance company that had competed for the right to invest that money (while guaranteeing a rate of return). To date, the private system has outperformed its federal counterpart. Some years have shown returns on investment of 12%, as opposed to an average of 2.2% under Social Security for a worker born in 1950.
People are SCREAMING for Social Security reform but the only solution the Dems can come up with is to charge the American people more money while doing nothing to stem the flow of money out of the Social Security coffers into Congressional hands.
But what do I know? This is just my two cents.
