As the debate between Congress and the President continues, we hear about the “entitlement” programs and the “problems” with them from all around. Presidential hopeful Rick Perry says he believes that Social Security is unconstitutional, that it needs to be sent back to the states for distribution. Many candidates for the Republican party still believe that Medicare needs to be privatized, that seniors should shop for insurance coverage on the open market. The bottom line is this: It’s all about money. Social Security is safe for 30 years, then begins to go upside down with collection vs. distribution. Medicare is going broke now, largely due to the high costs of medical care.
The question is…why are the lawmakers making it sound like people are receiving something they shouldn’t? Almost every person receiving Social Security is getting it because they paid their taxes when they were working. Some people were exempt. In Wisconsin, one of our own Congresspersons got SS because he lost his father when he was just a boy. He received benefits until he was 18 years old. Some people get it due to a disability. For the most part, the number of people receiving SS that are “gaming the system” is so minute they are not important. As for Medicare, if the hospitals, doctors, and medicine wasn’t so high, the cost of Medicare would go down as well.
The fact is this: most of these programs have been paid for by the people receiving them. They are good programs that provide for a very real need among our elderly and lesser advantaged. To take that away, to put the recipients on the defensive, is an act of unkindness, not to mention extremely unhelpful. We should be figuring out how to create better and stronger programs.
Related articles
- GOP Candidates Make Slippery Assertions In Presidential Debate (huffingtonpost.com)
- Who Recieve S.s. Benerfits Without Contibuting to It? (socyberty.com)
My Humble Thoughtz 