From: Robert Miller
Columbus
This is in response to the “Financial Reckoning Is Coming” column by Leo Morris that was in The Republic on Jan. 21, 2021.
I strongly object to Mr. Morris’ characterization of Social Security payments to Baby Boomers as “entitlement payments." Baby Boomers, just like every other worker since 1935, has paid a portion of every paycheck they received into Social Security.
As I am sure he knows:
"The Social Security Act was enacted August 14, 1935," according to Wikipedia. "The act was drafted during President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first term and passed by Congress as part of the New Deal. The act was an attempt to limit what were seen as dangers in modern American life, including old age, poverty, unemployment, and the burdens of widows and fatherless children. By signing this act on Aug. 14, 1935, President Roosevelt became the first president to advocate federal assistance for the elderly."
What was soon discovered by the Treasury was another way to make ends meet by “Robbing Peter to pay Paul." They thought they found gold when they decided to “borrow” against the surplus by simply writing an IOU back to Social Security for the money borrowed.
"An odd thing is taking place in some financial and economic circles, where people are arguing that the problem of the $2.9 trillion is somehow not the government’s fault and is really not that big of a deal," Garrett Parker of Moneyinc.com wrote. "The clock is running and no one seems to have a solution, yet all admit the government does owe the Social Security fund the money and that the government continues to borrow from the fund every year.
Now the Treasury, not Social Security, is facing a “day of reckoning” for their past sins by creating this “ponzi scheme” in the first place.
Mr. Morris should not blame hard-working Americans by calling what they have paid in to their entire lives “entitlement."
I am very disappointed in Mr. Morris. His words are just another example of misinformation being repeated over and over again until it is accepted. We expect those we trust to tell us the truth.
As President Lincoln once said, and Donald Trump may one day learn, “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”
I do agree with Mr. Morris that everyone must face a “Day of Reckoning." I also feel that ultimately everyone must answer to God. P.S. It makes no difference whether or not you believe in him. That is everyone’s right and why he has given us all “free will."
