There are people out there who desperately want to keep you angry and afraid. Because it’s easy to manipulate angry people, and people who are afraid enough will repeat any stupid lie without stopping to think, even for a second.
Some Republican "pundits" do this. Pick the dumbest thing any Democrat has ever said (out of context if possible), and pretend it’s what every Democrat everywhere thinks. But MoveOn.org has to be the worst. They use the same tactics, but they’re organized like the Waffen SS and they’ve built an army of angry and afraid people to spread their lies. Take a look at this, just as an example.
Every penny that was collected for SS has been spent, or will be spent soon. You could get mad at the people who said they would put the money in a “lockbox” … but what’s the point? The bank’s done been robbed, and we ain’t gonna get any of that money back.
Is it wrong to tell someone who has paid for Social Security "insurance" their entire working life that we are going to have to cut benefits? Sure. But those people are adults, and the money was stolen right in front of everyone’s eyes. Anyone who paid attention knew what was happening, and if you DIDN’T pay any attention, then shame on you. Still, nobody wants to let old people be desperately poor – not even evil Republicans.
But most of that benefit money is going to come from people who are children now, or not even born yet. Is it wrong to force them to pay for a scam they had nothing to do with? You’re damn right it is. Saying that the money we take out of their pockets is an “insurance payment” doesn’t make it better – it makes it worse, because we all know that money has already been spent.
And it’s even worse because, one the average, tax payers in their 20s and 30s have far less wealth (and even less income) than people in their 50s, 60s, and beyond. So by taking social security “investments” from them, and giving the money to old folks, we are often taking from the poor and giving to the rich. (And blowing a staggering amount on fraud and waste in the process.) How is that right?
So we have two bad choices – cut benefits, or tax the innocent. And we will end up doing both. We’ll probably “means test” Social Security, so that people who worked hard and saved money will get less from their Social Security “investment” than everyone else. We’ll almost certainly raise the retirement age for people who are now in their 40s. (And people in their 20s and 30s will have to retire a LOT later.)
And generations of children will be born deep in debt to pay the bill – which will be gigantic.
The only difference of opinion is that some people lean towards bigger benefits for old people and a bigger bill for the innocent. Some people lean towards lower benefits and a lower bill. There are Democrats and Republicans on both sides of that argument. Honest people trying to find the least bad path when all the choices suck.
MoveOn.org and other "pundits" are in a third group – pretending that the entire problem is just an evil conspiracy by the tea baggers and lib’rals. If we listen to them, then we will continue to pay out huge benefits without taking in enough money. We’ll continue to spend the money that we claim is for old folks on gigantic and wasteful government programs. The only way to make up the difference will be to run the printing presses at the Treasury … until our money isn’t worth anything. That will hurt young and old alike, and far more than actually facing up to this problem.