Cameron Triplett: Entitlements

November 27, 2010 10:00:00 PM

There are many "third-rail/sacred cows" in politics. Anything to do with entitlements is just about off-limits if a politician wants to protect his/her career. As the situations/conditions evolve, the requirements to be eligible for certain entitlements need to change with the times, or we all suffer the consequences. Raising the retirement age to be eligible for Social Security retirement benefits is an idea past due. If people can work until they reach 70 without difficulty, why do they get to draw SS retirement and work as well? The SS system is overloaded with freeloaders now, many of who have never paid a dime into the system, but they are "entitled," and many of whom cheated the system to get benefits for which they are not really eligible. We''ve got to do something before it''s too late. Our public servants in DC need to man up (even if they''re female) and do what''s right and needed, then explain, not spin or lie, their votes to the people who elected them. The same goes for those in Jackson.

Cameron Triplett Sr.

Brooksville

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Reader Comments

frank commented at 11/28/2010 9:36:00 AM:

Well the average life expectancy is 73 years so if we start paying Social Security at 20 and pay till 70...We pay it in for 50 years and draw 3 years of benefits. WHAT A DEAL! Sounds like a guvment program to me!

SS does need to be cleaned up and the freeloaders and politicians who are stealing from it stopped. But raising the retirement age is BS. You are wanting to make an already bad deal terrible, and worse yet do it to the detriment of those who actually funded it.

I would much rather see people given the option to opt-out of Social Security and set up their own private version. I certainly wish I had every dime I paid the government for SS invested elsewhere.

Before you raise the retirement age, how about we stop the federal government from robbing the SS trust fund and make them replace what has already been stolen. How about we clean up the other entitlement programs like Welfare, Food Stamps, Medicaid, etc. that allow able bodied people and illegal aliens to draw benefits. If the fraud and corruption were fixed, there would be plenty of money for the people who are truly in need.

hope commented at 11/29/2010 5:33:00 PM:

The social security money taken out of our pay checks go into a trust fund, that was put into a general fund under GWB. Our politicians can use it for anything they desire, and they replace it with IOU's. To replace this money they borrowed from social security, they will have to raise taxes. This is called the looting of S.S.
$2.5 trillion has been diverted from social security to be used for whatever purpose the politicians chose to spend it on. This could be the biggest fraud of the century.

frank commented at 11/29/2010 7:42:00 PM:

The "looting" started long before GWB. Daddy Bush and Billy Boy with the approval of Congresses of both parties took their share too. So would Obummer if there was anything left to steal. And there is no reason to raise taxes Hopeless, just cut out the fraud and clean up the corruption elsewhere in the Federal Govt. If you actually paid taxes instead of living off them, you would not be so quick to advocate an increase.

hope commented at 11/29/2010 8:52:00 PM:

How a national pension plan was transformed into an outright shakedown of working people, a manuever that began during Ronald Reagan's administration.

frank commented at 11/29/2010 9:55:00 PM:

Hopeless you have resorted to plagiarizing again I see. You and little Joe Biden never learn do you?

Just in case you need a definition:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plagiarizing

hope commented at 11/29/2010 10:09:00 PM:

Plagiarizing or no plagiarizing. It's an excellent example of what Republican politicians think of the American worker.
GOP=profit over people. The Republicans have won and already the people have started losing.

frank commented at 11/29/2010 11:52:00 PM:

Well Hopeless you can rant on the Republicans all you want but until people come to realize that BOTH parties got the country in the shape it is in and decide to elect some new leaders and hold them to high standards, we will continue to decline. Anyone who thinks one party or the other alone is to blame, is a fool.

hope commented at 11/30/2010 7:36:00 PM:

Facts on social security:What is the number one savings program in the US? Social Security- is it a tax? One must turn off Faux News to realize this is a savings program. Contribute in and guess what? When you retire it all comes back to the retiree. What is the one program that has remained in the black all these years?Social Security. What program did the Republicans use to fund the tax breaks under George Bush? Social Security.

frank commented at 12/2/2010 11:01:00 AM:

Hopeless, you would make Charles Ponzi proud...

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