“Are you pullin’ my leg?” Nope
“Do you really expect your kids to take care of you and your wife?” Yep, but you’re pulling my leg if you think it’s wrong, given that is the way society has existed for at least 4920 of the past 5000 years. The idea of extracting money from strangers started with the Bolsheviks and was imported to the US by FDR.
“Do you mean you will give your SS and Medicare back to the gooberment that forcefully took it for all your working years?” Gladly, providing that it’s the policy of this country. Otherwise I’ll take the money and hand it right to my kids, as it’s their money (and, in fact, their kids’s money) anyway. I have no more claim to it than I have claim to my neighbor’s money.
“Our kids and their spouses both work and live hand to mouth but do contribute to retirement accounts for their future. There’s no way they could take on the added burden of taking care of us.” Oh, they likely could - at least in most cases (don’t know yours, obviously). They would just have to be prepared to do so and adjust their lives accordingly. And even if they can’t finance all of it, they certainly can help, and so can the parents, by living cheaply.
“We CHOOSE to take care of my mom.” Awesome.
“We need every politican regardless of party to be voted OUT the next time around. We need new blood and I have to believe there are some out there that can fix this mess we’re in.” Not enough, it’s our attitude that stealing from future generations is ok that has to change too.
OK, I realize that back in the day families took care of grandma and grandpa and crazy Aunt Rose who they let come out at Christmas time. I realize that SS is the bastard at a family picnic nowadays but it was designed to help people in their last days. I know it all went wrong and Medicare blew up in our faces when it became the financial cow to pay for the war in VietNam.....(feel free to correct me if I’m wrong about that). I still maintain that these two thorns in the sides of many Americans would have succeeded if the crapiticians would have left their dirty, greasy hands off but to deny many Americans what they paid for, again forcefully, and it had worked out that each generation got what THEY paid for and not our kids, it might have been a good thing. I still say it can work for the reasons I’ve mentioned before and I’ll add take away the perks these jerks in WDC have in the Senate and House and that would save millions! They’re not special in any way at any time. They work for us and if they go to that cesspool called WDC with the best of intentions, it sure goes down the crapper real fast when the power bug bites them. Washington needs fixing and if that ever happens, SS and Medicare should work for everyone.