Once again FRiend, Social Security checks are cut by the same government that is 16 trillion dollars in debt. Social Security payments are paid in dollars. The same dollar that is being weakened by the same politicians who promise to keep giving you the same amount of dollars each month since you paid into the system. The same amount of dollars that will eventually be worth a small percentage of their current value as the government continues to drown in debt and print dollars.
Why can’t more of you see where this all ends? Fine, you will get your check each month but it won’t buy a 1/4 of what it does now. Why leave a nation like this for our children? Why? Too many bought the promises and if you live long enough you will find out that you can’t eat a promise... you can’t stay warm and dry with a promise... you can’t drive a nice car with a tank full of promises.
Sorry FRiend, that is where we are heading. I don’t want to go there but it seems inevitable when even conservatives can’t understand the immoral nature of our government.
Again, it’s all tied together.
I'm in my late 50’s and dealing with Leukemia, so getting at least one $1500 check before I kick the bucket is just a matter of principle to me. 62 was the minimum magic number that my Oncologist gave me when I was diagnosed, though I'm hoping to hit the outside number of 67 before I check out.
I have no hope of getting a fraction of the money that was “invested” by the Gubmint during my last 40 years of labor, but I continue to work and contribute like my fellow Comrades in Obamaville.
After all, it was Queen Moochelle who famously said that Barack expected us to work. Just doing my part for the Dear Leader and his legacy doncha know.
I salute you for fighting the good fight here and pointing out the truth. From experience, I know it won’t get you any love here. People prefer to find some excuse as to why their socialism isn’t really socialism.
To provide more data I did look into the budget a bit closer.
Social Security + Medicare is $1.29 Trillion in the FY2012 budget. The taxes which people pay to cover those programs come to $862 billion. Of the two, Medicare is ridiculously short. It pays out $468 billion on taxes which amount to $202 billion. Social Security is not nearly as bad, though it is certainly already in arrears. It pays out $761 billion while bringing in $660 billion in taxes.
This does not include either medicaid, or the disabled portion of social security. This is just the stuff for retirees.
This is out of $3.73 Trillion, so those two programs are around a third, and projected to grow each and every year for the foreseeable future.
Security costs (defense +FBI, DHS, CIA, etc) comes to $881 billion.
non discretionary spending+medicaid (which appears to group in everything one might consider welfare- food stamps, unemployment, child nutrition, disability payments) comes to $767 billion.
Discretionary non defense spending is $462 billion.
Oh, and to keep it in perspective, as we always hear the nonsense about cutting foreign aid, the budget for that is a whopping $56 billion. While in the lives of normal people that sounds like a lot it is well under 2% of the federal budget.
So, just to put some numbers out there, the biggest spending by the federal government is payments to retirees. It is also growing fast. The budget projections show those two items going up by more than 50% in eight years. Of course those are Obama projections, which are likely to be patently false (as in underestimates).
While people will whine and gnash their teeth when some politician is honest enough to point out the truth, it still remains the truth. Sadly though, they are likely right that the truth will cost people elections.
Though how about a simple analogy? If hired a financial planner who you knew was writing you IOUs over the years as your retirement account, without any actual backing in capital or securities, wouldn’t you get a bit leery and provide a bit more somewhere else? This is especially the case if that financial planner lived high on the hog, and always seemed to be in debt. Yes, I know Social Security is a mandated financial planner, but nonetheless the signs of fiscal doom have always been there.