Thursday, April 01, 2010

Broken Social Security, Failed Entitlement Programs

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Social Security is an unconstitutional entitlement program that should not have been enacted in the first place. The U.S. Constitution does not give the federal government the authority to be involved in the private citizen's lives in such a manner, nor to fund programs that place citizens into a culture of dependency upon the government. Like all socialist-style programs where the government does for the people, rather than the citizens being responsible for their own lives, once the culture of dependency begins, one cannot just remove such a program through an instant repeal. Social Security should be repealed now that so many people are dependent upon it, and we have all fed untold dollars into the bottomless pit of bureaucracy that the Social Security Administration has become. Rather than repeal the program, it must be reformed and reformed and reformed until eventually it fades away along with the rest of the bad ideas that have been presented by progressives during the history of this nation.

The promise of Social Security, as proclaimed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was that folks would no longer have to worry about planning for their twilight years. Retirement would no longer be a future of stress, loss of home, and cat food for dinner for the few folks that poorly planned their future. Government would make things all better, and thanks to the taxpayer, everybody's retirement would be one of security and safety.

A failing Social Security system, which will pay out more in benefits than it receives in payroll taxes (seven years earlier than expected) this year, brings light to a quote by Benjamin Franklin: "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Any time a personal responsibility is transferred from the people to the government, the choice of how one engages in that aspect of their life is taken away.

As expected, the Social Security program has not worked. Social Security has become yet another slush fund for the politicians to pull from at will, plus with a declining birth rate and the advent of the Baby Boomers reaching retirement age, even if the system had not been mismanaged dreadfully, it would be in deep trouble.

The economic downturn has added to the problem, encouraging more people to file for benefits than normal.

Now, the Democrats have passed Health Care legislation, yet another entitlement program designed to take away our choices by allowing the government to make them for us. Like Social Security, Health Care Reform is not sustainable, and will eventually become a failed program as well. Not only is the Health Care legislation going to spend money we don't have, but what is worse with the Health Care legislation is that along the way it will destroy an entire private industry. After the government experiment with Health Care becomes a failure, we will not have that privatized system as a choice to turn to, and we will all be equally out of luck, and equally miserable.

History is clear, be it through Social Security, or other socialized programs, anytime the government expands into the realm of what should be our own personal responsibilities, it fails, enslaves the people, and destroys both the economy, and people's lives.

If Social Security was such a good idea, then why are people now in worst shape for retirement than before its enactment? If Welfare is so great, then why have the number of poor in America increased? If Health Care legislation is so great, then why did the Democrats need to bribe members of their own party to get them to vote for it? If Universal Health is so great, then why do people from other nations that have such a system continue to come to the U.S. for treatment?

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

Social Security Going Broke Faster Than Expected - Big Government

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