CompuServe Messages

Many Democrats are fighting the amendment for a reason that I think is justified, but not properly explained in the media. Social Security is a trust fund. It's supposed to be running a surplus for now, because there's a large group of working people who will be retiring in the future, shifting the balance of workers to retirees. Those surpluses will be needed to pay out benefits to those who have payed in. Making cuts in the Social Security program – something I wouldn't necessarily oppose – is a very different thing from diverting those surpluses to cover shortfalls in the budget. This is something that has been done and that the Republicans are planning on a much larger scale. When regular people do things like that it's called fraud. There certainly is an argument to be made for cutting Social Security. Not that it's a bad thing, just that it costs too darn much. When it was established, it was helping a small number of poverty-level elderly retirees. Now, there's a MUCH larger retired population, and as soon as the Baby Boomers start retiring, that population is going to grow by leaps and bounds. It's a partial myth that SS is a put-away-for-later system – in large part it's a wealth transfer from the young to the old. When there are many young and few old, it's not a burden. When the situation is reversed, it is. Mr. Zombie – now 76375,1776 – no longer Warped