Social Security is MAKING Money, Not LOSING Money!
So STOP Trying to Steal It From Us! by Jules
Because one Republican a-hole wrote an article that said SS would be bankrupt by 2030 (based on five of the 11 deficit years), Fox news and the rest of the Rep Tea Party schmucks along with Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, and the rest of the propaganda club have spread and repeated this lie for years. That’s why I hate Fox news & the Tea Party, because they only reveal 5% of the story, which–when taken out of context–proves their demented point of view. That is not journalism, it’s propaganda. Good journalists present all the facts they have at the time, then let the readers/audience make their own conclusions. The a-hole who wrote this article had nearly eight decades of facts available, but chose to report on only five years in that timeframe in order to manipulate readers into believing exactly what you said, “By the time you and I are in our 80′s, there will not be enough workers to sustain the size of the SS budget.”
Since 1937, when SS began, there have only been 11 years (out of 78 years) that SS was in the red. The remaining 67 years, the SS fund has collected from one to seven times more money than it paid out. In 2007, SS collected $744,889 million dollars (yes, that’s $744.9 million) and only paid out $594, 801 million dollars leaving a surplus of $190,388 million dollars. And that’s just one of the 67 surplus years.
We have paid into this fund for 45 years, it’s not a government subsidy or freebees handed to the so-called “entitled takers.” It’s our money, our retirement, they owe it to all of us. And, believe me, they have made billions more on the interest they collected. If the government (and the Republicans) need more money, why don’t they collect taxes from the National Football League, an organization that makes $9.5 billion in revenue a year but is somehow considered a “non-profit organization” and hasn’t paid a penny in taxes since 1966.
In fact, country clubs, hunting and fishing clubs, and many sports leagues and organizations are tax exempt, in spite of the huge income they generate (e.g., the U.S. Polo Association: Annual retail sales equal $1 billion and pays zero income taxes) plus lots of other companies that earn millions in profits, yet pay no taxes (e.g., American Bureau of Shipping: Reported $3.17 billion in revenue, $600 million in profits from ship inspections from 2004 to 2010 and paid zero U.S. income taxes–although China and Britain collected taxes from them).
The problem isn’t liberal vs. conservative or Democrat vs. Republican anymore–it’s the Tea Party, Koch Brothers, Sheldon Adelson, and the billionaires against the rest of the population. Those who believe that “they” are entitled, and the rest are just peasants.
The list of major companies that have ended or brutally cut retirement benefits is 12 pages long. Thousands of companies have terminated health insurance, company paid retirement, and profit sharing benefits; and severely cut other employee benefits such as sick/vacation leave, holiday pay, and bonuses. Without social security, the bulk of the population will literally starve in their senior years; almost 50 million people (one in six) are already starving and living in extreme poverty in this country, and it’s not because they’re lazy and don’t want to work. Subtract children and elderly from that 50 million, and over half of that remainder have jobs, but can’t survive on $7 to $8 something an hour (Georgia’s minimum wage is $5.15 and Alabama has no minimum wage, so they can pay $4.00 an hour if they choose–and many do–that’s $160 a week before taxes!
It’s time to take a page from the Pope’s book of life:
“A way has to be found to enable everyone to benefit from the fruits of the earth, and not simply to close the gap between the affluent and those who must be satisfied with the crumbs falling from the table, but above all to satisfy the demands of justice, fairness and respect for every human being.” (Pope Francis, 6/20/13). Isn’t this what real Christians are supposed to do?