Our Government Has Forced Us To Pay Social Security

One of my big gripes as I approach retirement age, bear.

They keep complaining that this is the fault of baby boomers...this is the fault of the U.S. government.

I worked for 55 years and paid into Soc. Sec. for most of that time. My wife raised our kids to an age where they went to school then got a job with school units paying into a state retirement plan. She worked a total of about 30 years. She had some Soc. Sec. time but not enough to qulaify for payments. She tried to git what most wives do which is about half of my pension which was money we had planed on. Imagine our surprise when we found that sometime during our working years they had merged soc. sec. and her school plan so that she could only collect her school pension. Even though the plans were merged she dident get credit for her soc. sec.time nor could she collect on my soc sec even though a wife who never paid into soc. sec. could collect half her husbands pension. She also has to pay full medicare payments out of our pockets by check each year she is on medicare. Im not complaining about Soc. Sec., Im complaining about crooked politicians who make sure they git thier 100,000 doller pensions by screwing my wife out of hers.

Wow...I'd be pissed rabel22....in fact I AM pissed and it isn't even happening to me...plus I'm not even an American!

I just hate how governments take advantage of the working class/middle class taxpayer.

Here in Canada, members of parliament (something similar to congressmen) get a sizeable pension after only a few years as members. Makes my blood boil it does!

I tried to find the exact number of years and all by searching in Google. Judging from the search results, it would seem the Canadian and American governments are not the only ones who are pigging out at the taxpayer trough! It makes me so angry! Why do these elected officials believe they deserve better than the average citizen? How can they sleep at night knowing how badly they are screwing the taxpayer with this stuff?

Why?
"Why do these elected officials believe they deserve better than the average citizen?"

I feel that they don't think about it. People in power don't think about others, except how to rip them off and make themselves wealthier. A lot of politicians are wealthy before they get into office. They like to be in Govt. because it gives them a sense of power and it's easier to steal money that way, as well.

America is an Oligarchy or a Plutocracy if that word is prefered. It does sound nicer, doesn't it?

Just a couple of years ago they changed the law so that you could draw ss at age 65 with no penalty while still working. Prior to that you had to pay back 1 dollar for every three you earned over a certain limit. A nice touch for those it helped, but if the plan is in trouble, why????

If any private group or person tried to pass a program like SS off as a viable retirement investment plan, they'd be tried and jailed for fraud.

Yup. But try touching it now that it's in place and watch people scream.

Hi Bear:

Nothing wrong with Social Security, IMHO. In fact, it's kept many people from living out their senior years penniless, and even homeless.

But, for Greenspan (a wealthy globalist by any measure) to have the audacity to pronounce that future retirees should be asked to take a benefits cut because Bush took a $165 billion dollar surplus and went through it in 90 days, turning it into a $520 billion dollar deficit, is nothing short of criminal.

I believe Greenspan's outrageous remarks asking Americans to pay the price for Bush's ineptitude will become known one day as the turning point in the 2004' election that helped turn undecided voters against Bush.

If you don't see anything wrong with Social Security then you've been hiding in a cave. It's a government instituted ponzi scheme based on a basic premise that there will always be at least 4 people paying in for every one person collecting. That's a systemic design flaw (which is exactly why ponzi schemes are illegal to begin with) and the changing demographics of the population in the coming years are going to bring the whole system crashing down around our ears.

and in the meantime our social security money gets spent for other things.......that's the bigget bone of contention outside of the fact that you go to jail if you refuse to pay. If I want to piss away my money and then eat dog food and die on the street that's my business........

Politicians continue to use money from the Social Security trust fund for a wide variety of things not related to paying benefits.

This practice must stop.

Vice President Gore recognized this, and tried to bring the issue to the public's attention, even promising to put these funds in a lockbox.

But alas, 5 banana Republicans in black robes on the SCOTUS threw the 2000' election. Bush is spending the Social Security trust fund as if it were his personal piggybank.

MEMO TO BUSH: paws off this money.