The following correspondence originally took place upon my Facebook wall…
Jason R.:
“Entitlements? I PAID CASH for my Social Security insurance. Our benefits are NOT some kind of charity or handout! Congressional benefits… premium federal healthcare, outrageous retirement packages, 67 paid holidays, three weeks paid vacation, unlimited paid sick days! – Now THAT’S welfare! And they have the nerve to call my retirement an entitlement??? Repost if you are sick and tired of their crap!”
Rayn: Indeed, Jason! Payments for SS/medicare were snatched out of every one of my paychecks without my consent since I was 15 years old! Anyone who would label such an arrangement as an “entitlement,” “charity,” or a “handout” is either sorely mistaken, or outright lying! As for Congressional benefits, I agree 100%. The so-called “public servants” who accept these outrageous “benefits” sure think very highly of themselves compared to the ones they “serve,” eh? Disgusting! And, sadly, a quick examination of the numbers, and the intricacies of the system, shows that the Social Security trust fund worked well enough, mathematically, to leave it as a major target for LOOTING by our own government, time and time again!
What Happened to the $2.6 Trillion Social Security Trust Fund:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/merrillmatthews/2011/07/13/what-happened-to-the-2-6-trillion-social-security-trust-fund/
This is exactly why Social Security insurance’s biggest failure (besides not being voluntary) has been to put such a precious asset as our nation’s retirement into a single set of thieving, government hands, without our direct, daily, and individual oversight – all under the completely illogical and arrogant notion that “we the people” are unable to be trusted not to steal from ourselves, to understand the math involved in such a system, or even possibly, to have a few different versions of such a system in circulation, to meet the many different needs of the INDIVIDUALS that make up this country!
Speaking of welfare, how about CORPORATE WELFARE? According to the Cato Institute, the U.S. federal government spent $92 BILLION on corporate welfare during fiscal year 2006, alone! And, to add the the egregious nature of this virtual theft, recipients included such companies as BOEING, XEROX, IBM, MOTOROLA, DOW CHEMICAL and GENERAL ELECTRIC!!! Meanwhile, the same politicians that demand reforms for social programs largely REMAIN SILENT on this issue!!!!
The Corporate Welfare State: How the Federal Government Subsidizes U.S. Businesses:
http://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/corporate-welfare-state-how-federal-government-subsidizes-us-businesses
