What About Social Security?

Obama’s struggle against the blow-back from his “bitter-people-cling-to-religion- guns-and-bigotry” remarks included the admission, in the video below, that many people…

“…don’t believe they can count on Washington.”

Well, DUH! Of course they don’t believe they can trust government. Why should they?

The grand schemes of politicians never play out as promised and always subject The People to undisclosed negative consequences.

Consider the Democrats’ all time favorite: Social Security. They sold this scheme to the voters in 1937 in part by promising it would be financed by a payroll tax of only one percent each on employer and employee.

Since then the tax has increased 22 times, from one percent to 6.2% each on employer and employee (not including Medicare, an additional 1.45% on each.)

Maximum earnings subject to the tax have increased from $3,000 in 1950 to $99,000 this year. This increase is more than four times the rate of inflation.

The eligibility age for full benefits has been raised from 65 to 67. Given average life expectancy, the loss of two years amounts to a 16% reduction in benefits!

Even after all those tax increases and benefit reductions, the payroll tax doesn’t even come close to funding promised retirement benefits for the Baby Boom generation, a fact Congress has known and irresponsibly ignored for decades.

On Obama’s website, there are only two short paragraphs about “protecting social security.” There are no specific details, except that he is “strongly opposed” to any private accounts, and he might, once again, increase the maximum earnings subject to the payroll tax.

Obama does list dozens of new ways to increase government’s cost and power over the rest of us. Here are just a few, picked at random:

• Supplant parents with federal agencies that would care for infants and pre-school children;
• Extract even more money from taxpayers to hurl at public education, without first asking why the current $68 Billion federal education budget – a 106% increase since 2000 – hasn’t resulted in any improvement;
• The federal government to “recruit” math and science teachers, whatever that means;
• Impose a new “national health plan” on all Americans, by dictating the terms of all health insurance policies, and banning any policies that don’t conform.
• Government to impose “flexible work arrangements”. It should be noted that the biggest barrier to innovative work schedules and arrangements is government imposed wage and hour laws.
• Shut down payday loan providers by capping fees below the cost of doing business;
• Impose new, unspecified regulations on mortgage lenders, without first reviewing existing regulations to determine if any of the current troubles result from the law of unintended consequences;
• Force union membership on more people by removing the current requirement that workers decide if they will become unionized through secret ballot elections.
  

How can this man be so arrogant as to ask the voters to submit to even more regimentation and uncountable Billions in new spending? The notion that we should exchange more of our liberty for more Utopian promises from politicians is preposterous!

Nobody should be elected President without a credible plan to extricate this nation from the Social Security quagmire.