You are missing the point: it’s “entitlements” that consume about 60% of the federal budget. Year after year after year. They are the legacy of FDR and LBJ.
The Framers never heard of either FDR or LBJ, so I’m not sure how the programs they started in the last century fit into the original intent of the Constitution limiting the powers of the federal government. I suspect the Framers would be appalled at what has come to be considered “provid[ing] for the ... general welfare.”
Congress got itself into a bind by making “entitlements” untouchable. That has to change. It cannot be sustained without driving the country’s economy over the cliff.
“Entitlements” include SS, Medicare, Medicaid, and all the welfare programs, food/shelter, etc. They have to be brought under control. And it’s about time someone came out and said so.
Virtually everything about the SS program is arbitrary: the limit on earned income that’s taxed for SS/Medicare, how much SS pays out, how one qualifies, the age when one can start to collect, how and when SS income can be taxed, and on and on.
I’ve read that the average SS recipient collects in 4.5 years what s/he paid into the program over his/her working years. How can that NOT be a Ponzi scheme? That could well be considered ‘stealing’ from our children and grandchildren. I’m not willing to do that.
I am not missing any points.
Social Security and Medicare are not “entitlements” like welfare and other free stuff the government dishes out. People and their employers paid their money to these so-called “retirement” benefits. Many people are depending upon those retirement benefits (they planned their retirements around them) to survive through their old age.
It is you who is missing the point here. This is a fraud. It is theft. It is a lie to call retirement benefits paid for by people “entitlements.” If they could find the money to pay off unions, corporations, National and International banksters, they can find the money to pay retirees back the money they stole from them for a socialist scam.