I would wager that a lot of Americans believe there is a lockbox, that is overflowing with billions of dollars which have been collected from your paychecks, and set aside (just for you) and that your retirement will be funded by periodic withdrawals from this enormous fund.
Well, people need to know that there is nothing there. It's empty, it's been empty for a long time. It's bankrupting us. Say it loud. Say it often.
Now, if we have people's attention, we start talking about the group of people who deserve to still have a retirement funded by the government (you can't just yank this stuff away from all the old people) and the group of people who just aren't going to get anything out of it (30 years old? Paid into social security for 10 years? Sorry. Got nothing for you.)
Hash out those details over time -- but people need to realize that trillion dollar deficits are not sustainable, and, No, cutting funding for Afghanistan isn't going to magically solve our budget woes.
Republicans, in my opinion, do a poor job of hammering on this stuff.
Because Republicans are always the ones who are the bearers of bad news.
No one is talking about "cutting funds from Afghanistan", but when you hear about the $Billions getting lost in Iraq and no one seems to lose sleep about it, I have to imagine that the Pentagon has a lot of waste, too -- that has nothing to do with weakening our position in Afghanistan.