"Sharing can be a way of healing. Grief and loss can isolate,
anger even alienate. Shared with others, emotions unite
as we see we aren't alone. We realize others weep with us."
~Susan Wittig Albert

Through our writing, we walk out of the darkness into the light
together, one small step at a time, recording history, educating
America, and we are healing.
~CJ/Todd Dierdorff



Saturday, July 30, 2011

Social Security: An Entitlement?

I hope you're all enjoying your weekend! The following article was sent to me in an email yesterday by Frank Calderone, who is a very good friend. It has nothing to do with Vietnam or veterans or memories, however, it is something that does affect all Americans, which makes it extremely important to write about here. The article is as follows:

"Some politicians are calling Social Security an Entitlement. What is wrong here?

Remember, not only did you contribute to Social Security, but your employer did too. It totaled 15% of your income, before taxes. If you averaged only $30K over your working life, that's close to $220,500. If you calculate the future value of $4,500 per year (yours & your employers contribution) at a simple 5% (less than what the govt. pays on the money that it borrows), after 49 years of working (me) you'd have $892,919.98. If you took out only 3% per year, you receive $26,787.60 per year and it would last better than thirty years, and that's with no interest paid on that final amount on deposit.

If you bought an annuity and it paid 4% per year, you'd have a lifetime income of $2,976.40 per month. The folks in Washington have pulled off a bigger Ponzi scheme than Bernie Madhoff ever did.

Foot Note: in 1964, President Lyndon Johnson put Social Security into the General Fund and took it out of the "Lock Box." In 1993, President Bill Clinton made Social Security taxable. You pay tax on 85% of Social Security.

Some politicians are calling Social Security an Entitlement. I beg to differ -- I paid cash for my social security insurance. Just because they borrowed the money doesn't make my benefits some kind of charity or handout, does it? Congressional benefits: their free healthcare, outrageous retirement packages, 67 paid holidays, three weeks of paid vacation, unlimited paid sick days -- now that's what I call welfare ... and they have the nerve to call my retirement an "entitlement"! What the HELL's wrong with this? Tuesday's Daily Bulletin paper, ran two articles on the front page, side by side :

1. California 's 20 Billion Dollar Budget Deficit
2. The California Supreme Court ruling that ILLEGALS can attend college and get benefits.

Why don't they just deport them when they arrive to register?

3. Last year, they ran an article on the yearly costs to California Taxpayers from illegals using hospital emergency rooms for their general health care. At just one hospital, the cost to taxpayers totaled over $25 million a year!  Will someone please tell me what the HELL is wrong with all the people who run this country!

We're "broke" and we can't even help our own seniors, veterans, orphans, homeless, etc. In the last couple of years, we have provided aid to Haiti, Chile, Turkey, and Pakistan (the home of Bin Laden). We've literally given away billions of dollars ...

Our retired seniors who are living on a 'fixed income' receive no aid, nor do they get any breaks at all, while our government and religious organizations pour hundreds of billions of dollars plus tons of food to foreign countries. 

 They call Social Security and Medicare entitlements, even though most of us have been paying for both all of our working lives. Now when it's time for us to collect, the government is running out of money. My question is, why did the government borrow from it in the first place?

We have hundreds, maybe thousands, of adoptable children here in the U.S, who are shoved aside to make room for the adoption of foreign orphans.

Our own AMERICA has become a country where we have homeless without shelter, children going to bed hungry, elderly going without 'needed' meds, and the mentally ill who have no proper treatment, and yet they
had a 'benefit' for the people of Haiti on twelve TV stations, ships and planes lined up with food, water, tents clothes, bedding, doctors as well as medical supplies. Imagine if the government gave us the same support it gives to other countries ...

It's sad, yeah, okay. So when do we get pissed enough and then actually do something about it by voting the right people into office who really DO give a damn and who will make change happen? Hell, 99% of the people won't even have the guts to talk about any of this.  I'm one of the 1% who WILL ... join me, please?"

“I am only one, but I am one. I can't do everything, but I can do something. The something I ought to do, I can do. And by the grace of God, I will.” ~Everett Hale

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