Thursday, November 11, 2010

Don't Let the Government Cut Your Social Security Benefits.

I spoke a couple weeks ago on this blog about how Social Security Disability and SS Retirement was going to run out of money sooner than you thought, and how I expected the government to see reducing your benefits and raising the retirement age as the way to address this problem. Well, I was reading on the Internet today that part of the president's plan was to do just that. I wish I knew where I read it so I could point to the article, but I as many of us do, I was skipping around and lost the article. Anyway, keep your ears open for politicians to start touting this idea as something that needs to be done. I think it is time we remind the politicians, that if they have not been taking money from the Social Security fund the problem would not be nearly as serious. We pay a separate Social Security tax and this is not part of the general tax revenue of the United States. And yet many politicians see reducing these benefits and raising the retirement age as a way to reduce our deficit and supposedly save the Social Security system. The government has plenty of discretionary spending plans made in recent and past years that could be reduced or eliminated to help with this problem without having to affect the Social Security system. If we don't write our senators and congressmen this will happen. As the results of the last election show the majority of Americans believe we need to stop spending money and at the same time produce jobs for all Americans. However, don't let the politicians take an easy way out by limiting your safety net which is the Social Security system. I do not claim to have all the answers but we all know how much money the federal government has wasted over the last several years on less important things than the Social Security system. Let your voice be heard and tell your local Congressman and Senators to cut their pork barrel spending and not the Social Security system. If we do nothing I strongly believe those of you who are on Social Security disability or retirement benefits will see cuts of those benefits, and those of you who expected to retire will have to wait longer. I also would not be surprised to see an effort by the government to make it more difficult to win a Social Security disability claim. It is hard enough to win a Social Security disability claim with the rules as they are now. The disabled and retired cannot afford to have their benefits reduced because the government does not know how to control their spending. I hope I am wrong but when I read that article I saw the writing on the wall.