Those Who Caused Social Security Crisis Not Exempt from Restructuring

Harry Woelfer’s Baltimore Sun analogy comparing cuts in Social Security to an annuity investor shortchanged by unwise corporate investments is completely off base.

A better analogy would be if the CEO of an investment company had his own “guaranteed monthly income” cut after bad corporate investments. Ultimately, the American people decide who our politicians are, how government programs are structured and how federal money is spent. We hold hiring and firing rights, and have nobody but ourselves to blame when our government fails.

And it is the politicians whom Mr. Woelfer and other members of his generation put into office who have bankrupted the Social Security system. It is they who overpromised, and they who failed to take responsible steps to keep the system solvent. The American people time and again permitted politicians to refrain from addressing the fundamental flaws in the “third rail of politics”, squealed and shouted every time they attempted to do so. and failed to elect those who promised reform. There have been warnings going back decades that the trajectory of the system was towards ultimate collapse, yet no corrective action was taken. Who’s supposed to pay for this, our children? Why? They didn’t do anything wrong.

There’s nobody more responsible for the current and pending Social Security crisis than those who have in the past and continue in the present to warn politicians against restructuring the system. Hence, facing certain bankruptcy without affirmative action, there is nothing unfair about increasing the retirement age on those who, via their actions at the polling booth, have kept the current system afloat on funny money, false promises and unrealistic expectations. There is nothing even remotely unfair about reducing payments, extending the qualification age or raising the income level on those “who have been paying into the Social Security system for years and feel entitled to their promised benefits.”, because they have been enablers from the beginning, electing representatives who orchestrated a fool’s Ponzi scheme that was destined from the beginning to fail on generations of Americans who have yet to receive a penny.

It would be patently unfair to not fix the system, and to pass yet another ungodly mess on to our young men and women, girls and boys who had nothing to do with how the current system is structured, and who conceivably could have and would have taken a much more pragmatic and intelligent approach from the beginning. The system needs to be restructured, and those Americans least deserving of an exemption from the changes are those who contributed to the flawed policies that got us where we are today.



Editor - bethesite.com