Anytime I confront a liberal regarding Social Security or Medicare I am automatically converted to a heartless, greedy, evil, conservative. Anytime anyone suggests entitlement reform they are automatically accused of gutting those programs.
Paul Ryan was demonized by many for his attempts at reform. What the ranting lunatics failed to hear was that Ryan's SS proposals would not have affected anyone over 55 and his Medicare voucher ideas would have been voluntary. Doesn't sound like he was trying to gut anything or rob seniors of their benefits.
There is no doubt about it that those on the left and sadly many on the so called right would rather just sit back and no make any meaningful changes to these ultimately doomed programs. And the even sadder news is that if nothing is done, one day the programs will collapse under their own weight leaving millions of dependent seniors out in the cold with no safety net. The great lie of the Ponzi scheme will become apparent. The great lie that the gubment can take care of you from cradle to grave will be exposed.
It won't be pretty. For many, Social Security is the ONLY retirement they have and since they have no other retirement or visible means of support, Medicare is all that remains to keep them alive. I don't blame people for being scared to death when they hear claims that the entitlement programs are about to be destroyed.
We are in a hellacious mess. I am not sure there is a solution. Who is at fault? Well I blame the start of it on Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He after all started the whole snowballing mess back in 1935 in the midst of the great depression. Rick Perry was correct in stating that Social Security is unconstitutional. Nowhere in the document is the federal gubment empowered to provide such benefits for the general population. Nevertheless it was done. I don't necessarily think FDR had bad intentions but rather is the victim of unintended consequences. I don't think he ever envisioned people living as long as they do now and I don't think he ever imagined all these old timers hanging around and collecting benefits. Nevertheless, this is the mess we find ourselves in as the population grows older and their benefits depend on the remaining few that are still working.
I also blame the gubment way back to the 1930's for not encouraging saving and private investment. Many years ago I realized that I would not and could not rely on the gubment to take care of me. I was determined to get out of debt and stay out of debt and save and invest privately for the future. I am almost 60 years old. If I do manage to collect any SS benefits I will view it as a bonus. If I do not, then it won't really matter. In my financial planning I never figured Social Security in the mix.
Too bad that many millions did not make the same retirement planning choices as did I. Many are completely dependent on the unconstitutional Ponzi scheme. They have over the years been suckered in by the gubment and have no options now. Other public sector employees are nervously hiding behind their unions, expecting unrealistic benefits for sitting around doing nothing, as they watch those promised funds begin to vanish away. Oh the screeching! Oh the screaming!
Another unconstitutional gubment endeavor, Medicare, was installed in 1964. It has grown to enormous proportions as all those people FDR didn't expect to hang around so long grow sicker and sicker. Medical science comes up with more exotic and expensive ways to keep these folks alive and the beast expands and consumes more of the wealth of America. At the same time, private hospitals and practitioners have become enslaved by the system, forced to live under the weight of regulation and threat from the federal thugs. Goodbye freedom and liberty. So long free enterprise.
When Medicare finally collapses not only will the dependent seniors be out in the cold but the whole health care economy will collapse as the central payor of services ceases to be. This is already happening as Medicare cuts more and more payments and places those hoops we must jump through higher and higher.
So things are sooner or later going to change. Either the entitlement programs will one day catestrophically implode or by some miracle meaningful entitlement reform will occur keeping the programs solvent......different, yes, but solvent.
The next time you hear some stupid liberal screeching about someone stealing his SS and Medicare benefits, just remember that the ones with their heads in the sand will be the ones ultimately responsible for the demise.
Oh and before you talk about raising taxes on the rich, forget it. You could tax the rich at 100 percent of their income and it would still not be enough.......just wanted to get that one out of the way.
I figure that the former scenario I have described will occur and the entitlement programs will collapse along with the economy and probably the whole country as we know it. I am hoping that I will be dead and gone before it does.
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