Once upon a time there were people who made a deal with their government. The people would give a portion of what they made, in income, to the government in exchange for a paycheck when they reached a certain age.
This was called social security. This was really a continuation of the old idea that a civilization should take care of its seniors. In this case it would be by extending them an paycheck, to compensate for their year of loyalty. To do this the government set aside a TRUST fund, which would hold the money that the workers had invested. It was something like a 401K, only it was with the government, who would hold it in TRUST for the time when they should be able to relax, after years of work. There was a lot of money invested in this trust fund, and a government that could rarely live within its means soon saw all this money just sitting there. They started to put BONDs (IOUs) into this fund, so they could use it to fund their overspending. This was really an IOU. Over the year the people who thought it was their right to take this money started to call it an entitlement. They started to tell the people, who had been forced to put money into this fund, that they would not be able to get their agreed upon payment until later, that even thought they had been told they would get these payments at a certain age the age had been moved back, and so they had to work longer.
One of the most common reasons for this was because the people in charge of the funds, the U.S. Congress, could not seem to understand that they should not spend more than they brought in.
Just to give you an example.. Marco Rubio, the now senator from Florida, spent $150,000 to redo his office when he was elected. A number of year after he was elected, even after several years when te earned $400,000 a year and had not paid off a $150,000 student loan, he talked about fiscal responsibility as if the really understood the concept. These are the people who decide our fate.
On an aside. My brother got drafted as soon as college was no longer an exemption from the draft, and decided to go into the Navy. He signed a 6 year contract, which stated that after 4 years he would have been given an enlistment bonus. Then, just before you would have gotten his bonus, the congress decide to do away with it. The court of appeals, 3 out of 4, decided that since military pay was decided NOT by contract, but by congress, that the U.S. Congress could actually do away with military pay and they would still have to serve. This from the people who pass laws, such as the equal opportunity act and exempt themselves from the same laws that they apply to others. They did tell the Navy people they could get out of the contract, if they wished, after the 4 years. My Brother got out. So what is the lesson here? If two people make a contract they have to live up to their side of the bargain, or go to court, unless one side if the Federal Government, in which case they just pass a law that says they don’t have to live up to their contract.
The main point here is that these people, Republican or Democrat, will spend your money in order to keep themselves in power, while YOU are the one who has to live within your means.
I am not a Dittohead but I used to enjoy watching Rush Limbaugh when he was on TV. One night, while I was watching his show he played a clip of the Clinton Secretary of the Treasury, I think it was Ruben, telling the unions they could not borrow against union pension funds as it was “not your money”. Rush then pointed out that the U.S. Government was doing the same thing to Social Security, and played a clip of Rubin saying, “it’s NOT YOUR MONEY”. They never understood the point.
Here is a final thought. If a lawyer were to borrow from a clients trust account (escrow) he could be disbarred, if congress does it, its business as usual.
We can blame the President for spending the money that the congress give him to spend, and it is we who put them all in office.
So every year, when they tell us we have to work longer, who should WE blame?
Related articles
- The Social Security trust fund will start going bankrupt in 2013 (hotair.com)
- Fed’s low interest rate is killing Social Security (fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com)
- Chicago Social Security Disability Benefits Lawyer Urges Congress to Act Now To Repair SSD Trust Fund (prweb.com)
That Joe Guy 