By Joan Soble
Career Educator and Current Blogger
Joan shares this blog post, which appeared on her Facebook feed, and then rewrote to include her own observations and views. She asks us to share our own views on this issue on our own social media and with elected officials.
I don’t care what side of the aisle you sit on; this is a fact. Speaker Mike Johnson, this is for you.
Regarding Social Security payments, I contributed for over 50 years on every salary I received. Those jobs may not have always been the work I wanted to be doing at the time, BUT I always had a job, sometimes two at a time. Some in Congress believe that the Social Security check is a “Federal Benefit Payment.”
The government has long referred to our Social Security checks as a “federal benefit payment.” However, the sentiment to cut the payments has grown, as conservative voices in Congress raise the “threat of insolvency” by 2032.
This isn’t a benefit. It is our money paid out of our earned income! Not only did we all contribute to Social Security, but our employers did too. The current Social Security tax rate is 6.2% for the employer and 6.2% for the employee, or 12.4% total.
Congress borrowed our money and used it elsewhere. They forgot (oh yes, they knew) that it was OUR money they were taking. They didn’t hold a referendum to ask us if we wanted to lend them the money. And they didn’t pay interest on the debt they assumed. And recently they’ve told us the money won’t support us much longer. And now, to add insult to injury, they’re calling it a “benefit,” as if we never worked to earn every penny of it. (AARP)
Just because they borrowed the money doesn’t mean that our investments were a charity! Let’s take a stand. We have earned our right to Social Security and Medicare. Demand that our legislators bring some sense into our government.
This isn’t a benefit. It is our money paid out of our earned income!
Find a way to keep Social Security and Medicare going for the sake of the 92% of our population who need it. Then call it what it is: our earned retirement income.
I’ll be part of the one percent to act on this. It touches a nerve in me, and I hope it will in you. Please keep passing this on via social media until everyone in our country has read it.
AND, contact your U.S. representative and senators (click here for their names and contact information) and tell them to ensure SSI remains viable and no cuts are made for working people.
Joan Soble is a career educator and current blogger who has emphasized cultivating a deep understanding of content and student and adult voice that leads to empowerment, responsibility and optimism.