Survey

"A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned, this is the sum of good government."
-Thomas Jefferson-

When 'Social Security' is mentioned today, people's blood pressure start rising. If you're talking to a politician, the first thing one hears is, "Social Security was never meant to be a person's retirement". Actually, that's an irrelevant statement. No matter what it was 'meant' to be, the money still belongs to those who paid into the system. So now we have a situation, thanks to our elected officials over the years, where the 'trust fund' is close to insolvency. So now the question is how to fix the problem.

The first thing I'd do is fire all elected officials who voted for any bill that they knew used monies from the Social Security Trust Fund. The next thing I'd do is ask the people, "Do you want to trust our elected officials with your money again?" My experience of working with those who work with money is once they break trust, they are removed from the position of working with money. Why are people willing to continue trusting foxes to guard our hen house? Why can't people have the money deducted just like it has been for years by their local investment firm which in turn buys the same kind of secured bonds that have been bought for years. This way our elected officials do not have access to our money. The local investment firm will be happy to pay out our money to us without hesitation when retirement age is reached.

The talk of raising the age to draw Social Security or setting an age where those behind will never draw it may be worthy of discussion, but it is not the solution. Cutting government waste and spending beyond government income is an absolute must if our nation is to survive, and it must be done immediately. Once that is done, the government must establish a Balanced Budget Amendment and a line item in the budget that puts back an amount of money that eases the immediate stress on the Social Security system. Once they do the right thing for the economy (another discussion), then there will be an increase of funds going to the system which will certainly help in the short term. For long term, the pay back to the system can be increased in the coming years until the point of self sufficiency is once again obtained. This is basic budgeting processes. But I ask again, do we want to trust proven thieves to guard our trust deposits? You tell me.  You're the boss.