These programs are not “gimme” programs. You have paid, and are paying for them. Republicans, regardless of their protests to the contrary, want to cut them. Fact. Don’t let them get away with it!
THIS COLUMN is personal.
If you are retired and receive Social Security and Medicare benefits, it is personal to you, also. SSI? Medicaid? Medicare? Personal. Very personal.
Today’s Republican Party is coming after your monthly checks and your benefits; they’ve said it in whispered conferences in the past, and now are hinting about it openly on talk shows and interviews. The GOP, 220 members of the House, just elected a speaker who is on record as saying those programs are in the sniper scope of budget legislation and are the main agenda of deficit and debt deficit hawks in Congress.
Again, this column is personal. Here it is…again: If you or those you love are retired and receive Social Security and Medicare benefits, it is personal … to you..
Got your attention?
Recent articles in various publications paint a bizarre, ugly, futuristic picture of Social Security and other government programs financed by taxes and deductions from workers and companies. It is not the government’s money those elected yahoos are playing with; it is OUR money we give to our elected officials and public servants to manage for us to HELP us.
Just so we’re on the same page, Social Security provides various forms of benefits to millions of retired workers and their families, disabled workers, and survivors of deceased workers. It is funded with payroll taxes from workers, taxes on benefit payments, and interest on funds held by the U.S. treasury.
History tells us that our government has not performed its fiduciary responsibility well. One article sums it up the problem: “Since 1983, every U.S. president has borrowed from Social Security to pay for government expenditures ordered by Congress. (Read as “The government cannot operate efficiently with the trillions it takes from taxpayers.”)
“Payroll taxes paid by workers are deposited in the trust funds, and any surplus funds are invested in special-issue securities that are backed by the full faith and credit of the government,” the article stated.
Part of the problem is that as various administrations borrowed money, there was no discernible effort to hike taxes or cut expenses to reimburse the accounts. And, as the herd of Baby Boomers retired, more money started being paid out than current workers were paying in, the funds are being depleted.
FACT: It is projected that in 11 years (2034), the SS trust fund, which has been supplementing payroll taxes in recent years is projected to be depleted. After that time, due to the number of workers paying in vs. the number of SS recipients, less than 80 percent of money paid out would be available to seniors and other beneficiaries.
The president and Congress are in charge of the budget process. The GOP, by its charter, is for small government and low taxes. But cutting taxes primary on the rich and big companies without cutting expenses simply leads to deficits in the budget and the country’s debt.
That is not a political statement; that is a fact.
(Side questions: 1. Why does no one – not one elected leader — question why one of the richest countries on the planet HAS to borrow – from the SS fund or from foreign governments to pay its bills? 2. Why does China own more than $1 trillion — $1,080,000,000,000 as of 2023 – worth of U.S. debt? 3.Why does the United States even HAVE debt?)
The 2024 Republican frontrunners — Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis – have publicly stated no cuts to SS or Medicare. Sure. Yeah, right.
A simple Google search found that Trump has backed raising the retirement age to 70 and called for privatizing Social Security; he actually called SS a “Ponzi scheme”. He double-tongued those two positions to clobber DeSantis for supporting cutting social programs as a former member of Congress.
DeSantis served as a U.S. representative from 2013 to 2018, and during that time was one of the founders of the House Freedom Caucus. As a founder and member of this group, he helped lead the effort to shut down the government over funding for the Affordable Care Act in 22013 and the same year voted to pass a budget resolution that would have cut more than $250 billion from Social Security and Medicare.
Now, both men are asking for votes from seniors in primaries leading up to the 2024 election and saying whatever it takes to get them elected.
One GOP senator actually referred to SS as a “gimme” program.
I paid income tax for the first time when I was 14; I have been paying for more than 64 years. I have made contributions to Medicare since it was enacted in 1965. Every month I get a check from my account the federal government has set up for me. My money!
Congress: Leave these necessary and worthy programs alone and be fiscal stewards of the money sent to you! Run this country like a well-oiled, organized business and provide your constituents with exemplary service.
That’s all! Go to work! You’re dismissed!
George Smith views the world from the back porch Bedspring Ridge, a dogtrot house he built in Sutton, Arkansas on old family land on a spot where his great-grandfather’s house once stood. There he lives and opines with his wife BobbieJean and a rescue dog, “Li’l Dawg.” A former newspaper reporter, editor and publisher, he has a master’s degree in business, is a retired director for a global technology company, has been a business owner, student of government and the behavior of politicians. He has been a college instructor, national motivational speaker, community development and festival development consultant and is a published author.