Social Security -- A Case Of Theft

Being a current recipient of social security, I have a little different view of social security than people still paying into it. It started in 1935 with FDR. It was sold as a social welfare program to help the poorest among us, if they got too old. The average lifespan then was 61 in 1935. The minimum age that you could draw social security was 65. Therefore, it was not designed to pay out. It very soon became and was sold as an insurance program. As a welfare program, it was unconstitutional. FDR was losing every Supreme Court test of his alphabet soup programs, by 4 to 5 decisions. After he threatened to pack the Supreme Court in his favor with 13 justices, one justice began to rule in his favor. FDRs alphabet  programs started to win by 5 to 4 margins.

 In the 1960s social security was massively over funded. Lynden Johnson needed money for his great society legislation, and his war on poverty, so he and the democratic congress stole Social Security funding for other purposes, which included his war in Vietnam. I use the word stole because that is exactly what the democrats did.

Now that the lock was off the Social Security safe, later congresses stole from it also. Then along comes Jimmy Carter saying that Social Security fund is broke. He raised the tax for Social Security to 7.5% for every wage earner and matching amounts from the employer, with few exceptions. The average life span was 74 in 1977 with no change in the payout date of 65. Only today with the average lifespan of 80 is there any talk about changing the payout date.

Now if you look at Social Security as an insurance program that was raided by politicians wanting to buy votes for their reelections you may get a different perspective. In the very beginning, it was an entitlement program. Then to keep it constitutional, it was changed to an insurance program, with thieves at the gate guarding the money. Yes, I am displaying a little anger here, but then we should all be angry at the theft being perpetrated on us by our rulers in Washington.