Congress is considering cuts to social security in order to deal with the deficit crisis.
The reality is that Social Security has been cut for the last two years.
I will illustrate by my own example: My Social Security payments have remained fixed, but my expenses have increased. One expense is the supplemental insurance needed to pay the 25 percent of medical bills not covered by Medicare. I buy this insurance from AARP. A few years ago, the cost was $118.
Today, the cost of the same supplemental plan is $155.20, an increase of $37.20, or 31 percent. So, while my gross income has stayed the same, my net income (what is left to spend) has declined (incidentally the income from my part-time job has stayed constant as well).
Why is this my crisis? I worked hard in my small business for three decades. I did not plan to rely on Social Security alone, but most of my assets have vaporized as a result of the current financial debacle which, was in the main, caused by an unregulated financial sector.
Meanwhile that financial sector (which includes banks) has been bailed out by the Federal Reserve Board (which, although a private institution, can create money) to the tune of $16,000,000,000! Yes, $16 trillion. When I first heard these numbers, I assumed, as you probably do, that this is hyperbole.
But, this number is from the United States Government Office of Accountability.
So, there is no longer a crisis in the financial sector thanks to socialism for the capitalists.
Another aspect to the deficit problem is that the percentage of revenue collected by the government from corporations and wealthy individuals over the past several decades has dropped from 50 percent to 18 percent (recalling the figures from the best seller, “Perfectly Legal”).
The difference is now made up by the poor and the middle class. Neither Democrats nor Republicans frame the discussion in the context of the issues I have alluded to, nor in terms of the vast sums being spent on perpetual wars. Rather, they are going after the poor, the middle class, and the elderly. And, as one of the elderly, I take that personally.
Nelson Strasser
Kelseyville
