[Jhoffa_]

It is unconstitutional on the Federal level, however like Social Security there's a good argument for it.

These people were robbed of that money.

Look at SS, you don't have a choice, you are going to pay.. But if they did the constitutional thing and ended it tomorrow, then by all right's they (fedgov) owe a debt to the people they stole from all their lives.

[Myrddin]

SS goes right from your paycheck deduction to the checking account of a recipient. I count every penny contributed as lost. Many senior citizens have collected amounts far in excess of their contributions. The politicians aren't happy with that travesty. Now, they want to exacerbate the problem by stealing more money to pay for prescription drugs. They know this will buy them votes from the aging baby boomers in the future.

If you take the SS deductions from my paycheck and the amount matched by my employer, there would be enough money to hire a minimum wage employee. Businesses could actually get some productive work out of that money instead of supporting a non-working person in idleness. A business is not a jobs program. It exists to make money. Employees are hired only when needed to make the business productive enough to meet the marketplace demand.

The minimum wage is a crock too. It sets the minimum price for unskilled labor. No worker worth a damn will stay at minimum wage for very long. Many with no experience will never even get hired because the price is too high for an unskilled individual. They won't have a chance to demonstrate their real worth to an employer.

You mentioned "these people were robbed of that money". I submit that the unemployment benefits are taken from the taxpayer. No person receiving those benefits has explicitly paid for unemployment benefits as such. Social security is explicitly deducted. The right thing to do would be to fund an real account (like a 401K) with the amount taken from an employee and cease taking further deductions. If you haven't paid, you aren't entitled to a refund of monies not already disbursed to you via SS benefits. End of theft by the government.