An Upside Down World

Or Just Politics as Usual

Yesterday I sent an e-mail to one of my Senators asking him to tell me the truth as to the status of the Social Security Trust Fund. Does it, in fact, have a surplus of almost three trillion dollars, and still at this time rising, as stated by the Social Security Trustees or is it an unfunded liability as claimed by some politicians and most of the news media? In response to e-mails sent to one prominent business news anchor, he answered by saying that all who had e-mailed him that Social Security was self-funded were wrong, that all the Trust Fund money had been spent and Social Security was broke. His attitude also suggested that seniors are selfish if they don't agree to take a cut in benefits and allow those savings to be used to pay down the national debt. For years we have advocated reforming Social Security and Medicare with the hope that it would be solvent for our future generations, even to the point of taking a small cut in our benefits but not to use the savings as part of the budgit to pay some unfunded liability. One of the biggest problem with living, largely, on Social Security is their continuously raising the deductables. That almost forces the insurance companies to raise their rates. Retirees are always the losers. I'll leave it at that today and wait to hear back from my Senator. Of course, he may be just like the majority in Washington. We'll see.

This posting is being deliberately left shorter than usual because I have been writing on the same subject for a while and I don't know much more about it now than when I started. One thing, I believe, that I have learned is that too many people who should know better will lie to you or, at least, try to confuse the subject. With that I will quote a poem that I believe is appropriate for this occasion.

"A Six Pack To Go

If we could bottle up the Bible, label it God's Own Holy Word / Send it out to all the world, let His message there be heard / Plant the seeds of righteous, contentment all around us sow / Then go to church on Sunday and get a six pack to go.

One could be His judgement, two might be His love / Then there is His Saving Grace, dispensed from up above / Another could be compassion and joy should be there too / For life wouldn't be worth living if God wasn't blessing you.

The bottles could be rather small, an ounce or two in each / A sermonette is what we'd get when we let one out to preach / There's one for each day of the week when our life to Him we yield / Then go to church on Sunday and get them all refilled.

One could be His judgement, two might be His love / ----."

Yesterday there was a "Tea Party" rally in our local City Park but I didn't go. I went to one of their first meetings but learned from it that their agenda was almost exactly the same as what I had been trying to promote for years but had been ignored, even by some of those present that day. I was "Tea Party" before Tea Party was cool. Thanks for your time. Stay tuned - William