ENTITLEMENT - BALDERDASH

I received this in an email. Admittedly I have not checked the math. Not that that would help. I’m lousy at math. All I know is that this resonates with my spirit. I have said it before and I say it again. Social Security is not an entitlement program. That is my money they are still withholding I Paid social security for age 18 until age 58. I paid not social security for five years near the beginning while I was in school. I never made enough money after age 58 and began collecting social security at 62 so I could survive. So I paid into this “entitlement” program for 35 years and most of those years I paid the entire amount as no employer matched my funds. I was consider “self employed.”

They took my money with a promise the invest it and return it to me at retirement. Using the word “entitlement” is a manipulative attempt to make me and everyone else believe we are getting something for nothing. I am getting nothing for free. With my “benefits (both social security and medicare) I still do not come close to receiving the value of my investment minus any interest my money should have earned.

This is not an “entitlement,” it’s my money. The government forced me to contribute as an investment in my future retirement and now wants to steal what is left. Theives.

THE EMAIL

This is another example of what Rick Perry called "TREASON in high places"!!!

Remember, not only did you contribute to Social Security but your employer did too. It totaled 15% of your income before taxes. If you averaged only $30K over your working life, that's close to $220,500.

If you calculate the future value of $4,500 per year (yours & your employer's contribution) at a simple 5% (less than what the government pays on the money that it borrows), after 49 years of working you'd have $892,919.98.

If you took out only 3% per year, you'd receive $26,787.60 per year and it would last better than 30 years (until you're 95 if you retire at age 65) and that's with no interest paid on that final amount on deposit! If you bought an annuity and it paid 4% per year, you'd have a lifetime income of $2,976.40 per month.

The folks in Washington have pulled off a bigger Ponzi scheme than Bernie Madhoff ever had.

Entitlement my butt, I paid cash for my social security insurance!!!! Just because they borrowed the money, doesn't make my benefits some kind of charity or handout!!

Congressional benefits ---- free healthcare, outrageous retirement packages, 67 paid holidays, three weeks paid vacation, unlimited paid sick days, now that's welfare, and they have the nerve to call my social security retirement entitlements?

We're "broke" and can't help our own Seniors, Veterans, Orphans, Homeless.

In the last months we have provided aid to Haiti, Chile, and Turkey. And now Pakistan ......home of bin Laden. Literally, BILLIONS of DOLLARS!!!

Our retired seniors living on a 'fixed income' receive no aid nor do they get any breaks while our government and religious organizations pour Hundreds of Billions of $$$$$$'s and Tons of Food to Foreign Countries!

They call Social Security and Medicare an entitlement even though most of us have been paying for it all our working lives and now when it’s time for us to collect, the government is running out of money. Why did the government borrow from it in the first place? Imagine if the *GOVERNMENT* gave 'US' the same support they give to other countries.

Sad isn't it?

SAY IT ISN'T TRUE JOE?

Who even knew there was a place one could buy a $16 muffin. They didn’t even look to be as big as the ones from Costco. They are the little ones. Bella Bella (fancy dancy) cupcakes sell for $16 for a half dozen or $2.75 for a single cupcake, I think these might be slightly over priced. You can buy a Hostess Cupcake with that nice creamy filling for under a dollar and you get two in the package. If you buy a bunch you may even be able to get them fresh.

Oh well, this is your tax dollars at work. Lets take some more away from the old people and maybe they will die off quicker. But lets not forget the needs of our congress people some of whom have said how hard it is to make it on $175,000 a year. (I’m willing to try). Maybe it is if it costs $16 for a muffin and $8 for coffee all over down. What’s in these muffins? What kind of Latté, Cappuccino, Foamy, doubt pump, mucho gusto 64 oz. coffee are they buying. For a group that size set out a few coffee urns with normal coffee cups like normal people do. Better yet, serve them bread and water. On some days that’s a treat for those on social security. Can’t someone there make a pot of coffee? People do it in offices all over the country everyday. Can’t they have potluck snacks and everyone can bring a plate from home. That might be too much. But grocery stores have whole aisles of cookies. Some could even be sugar free.

For that price I will be the middleman and buy what they need on the west coast and ship them UPS over night express to Washington if they will buy 250 at a time. I want to know if $16 is the group discount price? Those poor struggling civil servants living just above the poverty line! And they have free health care. Contrast that with how the government defines the poverty line: $22,314 a year for a family of four and $11,139 for an individual.

“(WASHINGTON) Reuters reported: As the U.S. government grapples to find ways to trim the bloated federal deficit, a new report suggests officials might start with cutting out $16 muffins and $10 cookies.

We found the Department (of Justice) spent $16 on each of the 250 muffins served at an August 2009 legal conference in Washington,” said a DOJ Office of Inspector General report released on Tuesday.”

It’s not that I’m angry, bitter or upset, but “)xqzlidp,” why don’t they dig into their own over loaded pockets to help the economy by trying to find a tank of coffee in the big city of price gouging that doesn’t cost more than a tank of gas. We elected you to help us, not have us help you to a lifetime of guaranteed income not based on years of service, but on just being elected.

Don’t get me started.