Social Security is NOT an "entitlement"

And the Democrats are NOT asking for "tax increases!" They are asking for TAX REFORMS, in addition to allowing the Bush tax cuts to EXPIRE as they were DESIGNED TO DO.

These kinds of terms really PISS ME OFF. I pay 7.5% of my income into Social Security, and my employer matches that as part of my compensation. Of course I am counting employer contributions as part of my compensation. You don't think employers are? 15% of my income is NOT an entitlement. Why do we keep letting them get away with mislabeling things for political purposes.

If Social Security is an "entitlement," then insurance is an entitlement also. Social Security is designed just like insurance. We all pay our premiums, knowing that we may not collect back all that we paid, but someone else might instead. However, we pay the premiums in case, we are the ones who need the million dollar cancer care.

And like insurance, it should be sustainable, but for the government's borrowing from it, and circumstances like the baby boomers - or in the case of insurance, several hurricanes in a row. The baby boomers, who are a huge group, are all claiming their benefits at once. Then there's the fact that people due to medical advances, are living longer. We need reforms to Social Security and Medicare to fix these issues. I think we can all agree on that, but that doesn't make it an entitlement, not by a long shot.

It's not entitlement if I don't collect more than I pay in, or my father died before he collected a dime, and I collect some of his - for example. A lot of people die before they collect a dime of that money. Yes, there are people who are born with terrible disabilities that don't pay in and do collect, and perhaps you could say they are receiving an "entitlement," but the system was designed to stop the old and infirm from suffering horrible poverty and/or starvation. I'm PROUD OF THAT. Theoretically we all have a "policy" with Social Security . . . any of us could have that child who is born disabled or could become disabled and SS is insurance we ALL pay into in the event it happens to us.

We are the UNITED States, and we have done many marvelous things UNITED TOGETHER to promote the general welfare, and UNITED we pay for these things. This is just one of them, clean water, immunization from disease, roads, bridges, etc., etc., etc., are among some of the other things we do together that benefit us as a society. Those things are NOT entitlements, so long as we responsibly pay for them. In the last 20 years, we haven't been doing that, because political gamesmanship has been turning us against our own best interests and the idea this UNITED States represents in the first place.

Is that socialism? Again, we are the UNITED States . . . our Constitution is all about the things we will do TOGETHER. Lol, I guess that made us socialists from the get go. We have a balance of both "socialism" and capitalism, and we are constantly debating and revising the terms of that balance, but there have always been elements of "socialism" in our society. Always.

Further, the private sector has been doing a number on my 401k all my life. They rob us blind, and we hand them more money so they won't blow up the entire economic world. Even pension plans are raided. No, Social Security isn't perfect, but it's about the most historically solid retirement plan we have. We need to fix it, NOT destroy it. I don't want to live in a world without it. I can't imagine the suffering we would all see and many of us would endure.

Finally, maybe we should take a look at why the government is broke . . . wars we charged on our China credit card, pork projects, waste, graft . . . Pres. Clinton figured out how to stop running at a deficit. We, as a nation, have bought into the whole, charge all the crap we can't afford, live above our means, and worry about how to pay for it later. WE, the people, individually and as a government, have to learn how to live within our means. THIS is our generation's challenge. We can start making REAL changes, which means PAYING OUR DAMN BILLS, including increases in revenues AND spending cuts, in a responsible honest way. All this BS from these Ftards we have elected is just more of the self-delusions that got us into this mess.

I'll tell you what an "entitlement" is - it's oil companies, that are making record profits and paying little or no taxes, getting subsidies. Now THAT is an entitlement.

Libertarians and "anti-government" types are always bitching about the government while enjoying all that it provides. I'm not willing to throw the old and infirm out on the street to die, just so YOU don't have to pay your share. I'm not willing to live in some primitive society with an uneducated, diseased, heart-breakingly poor class of people, just so YOU don't have to pay your share. I'm not willing to do without clean water, food inspections, unregulated corporations running wilder than they already are in defrauding us all and taking advantage of workers, just so YOU don't have to pay your fair share.

What frustrates me is that they never have any SPECIFIC argument laying out why their ideas are better, why they will actually make our society BETTER, just general cliches about "big government" and the "nanny this" and "nursemaid that" and "I don't want to pay blah, blah, blah." That's not an argument. Explain to me how having a grotesquely poor class of people, including children and the elderly, whether they should take care of themselves or not, is better for everyone? Then explain to me where my privatized Social Security money would be right now if Bush had had his way - because my 401k keeps getting raided by the banksters every few years, and I freaking hate it. I'd put all my retirement money in Social Security, and collect an adjusted benefit if that were possible and I knew the system was sound and not going to be robbed before I could collect it. Maybe I'd die before I got a dime of it and someone else would benefit, but at least it would be put to good use.

Since our nation's conception, we have constantly been arguing about the limits of the things we will do together and revising those endeavors based on what does and doesn't make sense, but we are a representative democracy, and the majority decides. If some folks don't like that, they have to convince us on EACH individual issue that their way makes more sense. If they can't, then I'm sorry, they lose.

Freedom isn't free, and rights come with responsibility in a civilized society.