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You guys seem to me to be overlooking a key point. Nearly everyone pays into SS their entire working life. Therefore, as far as SS is concerned the retirees are not living off anyone. They are simply getting back what they put in. Had that money been invested instead of taken from them by the government they would get much more back.

SS was a scam from the very beginning. There was never a trust fund nor even Al Gore’s lock box. Both FDR and Gore simple lied and they knew it. On top of that, when the retirement age of 65 was set the LE was 67 for whites and 64 for blacks. The blacks who are so in love with the Democrats were never intended to get any of their money back and whites very little. Those who died early were simply contributors to the fund. All the money just went into the general fund as was spent immediately on other things. So, when you talk about raising the retirement age or lowering benefits you are just enabling the continuation of the scam.

When I reached age 65 and applied for my SS they had no record of most of the companies I had worked for. They blamed it on a computer change in 1988 and said they lost a lot of data. They wanted to know if I had all my income tax records going back to 1988. This was in 2004 so of course I did not have those records. I told them I did not but the IRS did. They said they couldn’t get it from them, that it must come from me. I ended up with about half of what I was owed. Until then I had always been told I had contributed the maximum amount and would get full benefits.

In the last few years, at SS offices in Dallas and Georgetown, Texas, I have seen long lines and full waiting rooms of young minorities with “counselors” with them. They were signing up for disability payments from SS. It seems the law has been changed to include alcohol and drug abuse, depression, including simple mood swings, and almost everything else as a disability. However, if you are not a minority you need not apply. A big chunk of the SS payments goes to those folks rather than to retirees. Yet, when you hear them saying we need to “save SS” they mention only us old folks. They don’t want you to know about the freeloaders on the system.

Number one - You don’t get back your own money. It is not an investment but more like you are buying insurance. If it was yours you could ask for a lump sum withdrawal and do with it as you please. Retirees are not getting back what they put in ... that money was spent years and years ago. They are getting other money paid by current payroll deductions. No coloration, not even a realistic analagy.

It was aa scam. Sold to the American people as insurance but argued before the USSC as a tax. History. Social security is paid into the General Fund by payroll deduction. The government sends a note, not even an IOU, to the Social Security Administration stating so-and-so paid so much. The money is deposited into the general Fund and Congress spends it on the bills/expenditures they incur. Be it federal employees salaries, federal building rentals/up keep or ‘gifts’ to their ‘friends’ (like $200k for fruit fly research in Paris, France).

Social Security now includes many many different clauses so people can get the money. Some of who have never ever paid social security. I have also seen people who have earned it and were injured on the job and denied the additional benefits.

Social Security needs major reform. Social Security was never meant to be the sole income in any ones senior years. Reform is needed to care for our citizens, however it is not the governments responsibility to care for citizens ‘from the cradle to the grave’. The social security and other payroll deductions were NEVER the property of the individual who paid it. It is a TAX and as such when it leaves you pocket it is not yours to claim ... it is the government’s.