Wake Up America

And smell the manure

On my hill here in Tennessee, the stench has become almost unbearable. Through a truly bi-partisan effort the Washington crowd, elected and non-elected - going back twenty years or more - has hi-jacked our Social Security Trust Fund and spent the money which was paid in by hard working Americans through the FICA (payroll tax) in an effort to insure themselves help in their retirement years. That money has been, and probably still is, used in what amounts to a high stakes slush fund. A law passed in 1990 plainly states that any surplus payroll tax money was to be invested in Special Government Bonds and kept seperate from income tax (Etc). money and was not to be counted as part of our National Debt.

According to the "Social Security Trust Fund's Annual Report for 2010" which was signed by the trustees of the Trust Fund - Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geitner; Secretary of Labor, Hilda L. Solis; Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius and Commissioner Michael J. Astrue - The payroll tax showed a surplus of seventy-seven billion dollars in 2010 which would be added on to the almost three trillion dollars surplus at the end of 2009 and the trust fund surplus would grow to about four trillion, two hundred billion dollars by the end of 2024. The break even point (when the income from the payroll tax and the out-go in the form of Social Security checks and payments for Medicare and Medicaid) will be about that time. After that happens the Federal Government will have to borrow more and more money, to replace the hi-jacked and spent Social Security funds, leading to higher and higher deficits. I don't know if the powers that be are brain washed, don't have a brain to be washed or are trying to brain wash us but as long as they are allowed to blame Social Security for all the budget problems the smell will only get worse.

In an attempt to cover up what has been going on in Washington for too many years, most of the politicians and many in the news media are desperately trying to divert attention, confuse the issues and place all the blame on the most vulnerable American Citizens, the seniors who are still living and get Social Security and Medicare. Their only power is at the ballot box.

Make no mistakes, there are problems to be solved, the long-term financial challenges facing Social Security and those that remain for Medicare and Medicaid should be addressed soon. If action is taken sooner rather than later, more options will be available and more time will be available to phase in changes so that those affected have adequate time to prepare.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day and my prayers are that most people are truly thankful for what we have here in America and will find the courage to defend it. Remember, if you're not old enough to get Social Security now you may be someday if we don't let it be destroyed. I will close this posting with a poem about "Thanksgiving Days;"

"Time, as they say, may be my greatest ally / Hundreds of years have passed since my birth / Answering a call that was born in freedom / Now nothing can ever take away from my worth / Keeping the faith of our founding fathers /Some may say that it's not worth it all / Groping for a better way to be thankful / If into every life a little rain must fall / Vows are sometimes made before the feasting / In as much as that's what it's all about / None of which can be recalled on the morrow / Gorged upon the turkey there's no doubt.

Do we know what it is to be thankful / Are we just happy it's another holiday / Yielding to the pleasures of the moment / Surely we can find a better way."

If you made it this far you have surely guessed that I am not happy with any politicians of either party. We'll find out what the newcomers from the Tea Party can or will do but I won't hold my breath. Thanks for listening, stay tuned. - William