There are two kinds of people who want to cut Social Security—liars, and people who believe the lies. They’ve heard the conservative talking points. “Social Security is going broke.” “Social Security won’t be there for me when I retire.” “The only way to save Social Security is to cut benefits.” Unfortunately, these Wall Street funded lies have gotten plenty of traction in recent years. So much so that a recent survey shows that 43 percent of young people believe that Social Security won’t be there for them when they retire—no matter how much that same survey shows that these same young people want it to. It’s time to set the record straight. This 4th of July weekend, when you’re speaking with your Rush Limbaugh-listening cousin at the family BBQ, you have the facts on your side: Social Security has a $2.7 trillion surplus and can pay out every benefit owed to every eligible person for the next 19 years. After that, even if we do nothing, it will pay out 85% of benefits owed for the next 75 years. Social Security has not contributed one penny to the deficit because it is independently funded by the FICA payroll tax. Proposed “tweaks” to Social Security would hurt seniors, disabled veterans and people with disabilities. All we need is to ask millionaires and billionaires to start paying into Social Security at the same rate as the rest of us and we not only extend the life of Social Security, but we can expand benefits to the majority of Americans.
Posted on: Fri, 04 Jul 2014 18:56:15 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015