Social Security Cuts Coming from Congress: Where Does Billy Long Stand?

I am hearing solid reports, Social Security is on the chopping block. Republicans like the Young Guns aren't pushing to end entitlements, but they are pushing entitlement reform. To save Social Security, there may be some big cuts coming. I am going to explain to you first of all why this is wrong and secondly why Social Security needs to be phased out rather than reformed.

First of all, the money that has been confiscated from you for Social Security was supposed to be set aside in a special fund as a retirement account. This of course, wasn't a solid plan from the beginning when Social Security was signed into law in 1935. Some thirty years later, Lyndon B. Johnson ensured Social Security was on the path to destruction--like everything else the federal government touches.

The federal government DOES NOT fund Social Security! Social Security funds the federal government.

Since the Johnson Administration of the ’60s, the S.S. fund has been plundered and the surplus from the fund used to finance wars and the daily operations of the federal government. This came as a result of Johnson declaring that these surplus funds would be added to the general fund. Once there, the funds could be used for anything and everything.

And that has been the case. In recent years, as Congress has no problem voting themselves pay raises, while padding their lifestyle with lobbyists' generous contributions, the nation's seniors are now dealing with this fact as the cost of living skyrocket, but seniors aren't getting their annual cost of living allowance increases to reflect these rises.

If you have seen your Social Security account statement, you know the statement that tells you what your monthly check will be at retirement, you may have noticed they give you an inflated number and then tell you because Social Security is broken, you will only receive a percentage of this number.

The thing to remember here is Social Security is supposed to be your money. However, the federal government, as you can see hasn't respected that little fact. It hasn't been put into a lock box and they are treating it like your retirement account. In fact, the unfunded liability of Social Security, if most American would just wake up out of their stupor, would be enough to sicken you--many claim over $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities.

So, Republicans look, from the words of the Young Guns (Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan) are looking at reforming programs like Social Security, which means they still want to confiscate your money and then make promises that are going to fail. This isn't acceptable anymore.

Let's totally phase out Social Security. Let's pass a law that says if you are born on January 1, 2012, you will no longer have money confiscated from you in the guise of F.I.C.A. This would not only prevent this confiscation of wealth for a program the government mismanages, it would free up money in small businesses to hire. Of course, it will never happen. Your benefits will be cut, but you will be promised something because Cantor and Ryan have a plan to fix the impossible--all as they take more of your money.

Now I would try to fight for the average F.I.C.A. contributor, but there would be a huge hole in my plan--a hole I couldn't even try to fix. I would argue the federal government needs to ensure that every American who paid into the system will get a return on their investment equal to the amount they invested. The problem is with that, all the federal government would have to do is start the printing presses, and your investment would be worth nothing.

So instead, they will continue to take money from you--probably at a higher rate in coming years, and they will give you less and less. In fact, the Social Security cuts could be coming as early as next year. I wonder what Congressman Billy Long thinks about this. Remember his answer from above--"for now."