The
Republican House speaker is out to steal away Americans' hard-earned retirement
benefits.
For nearly half a century now, America’s middle-class working
families have been pummeled by corporate greedmeisters and their political
henchmen.
Indeed, during the recession, the typical median-income family
has lost 40 percent of
their wealth. Haven’t they been punished enough?
No, says House Speaker Paul Ryan.
Along with other top Republican leaders of Congress, he intends
to slash the Social Security money that middle-class and low-income workers
depend on for their retirement, and he ultimately aims to kill it altogether.
Dependence on such public “entitlements,” he preaches, weakens
our nation’s morality.
Entitlements? Social Security isn’t a welfare program — regular
working people pay a 12-percent tax on every dime of their wages into this
public pension fund year after year. They earn their retirement.
Morality? Social Security embodies America’s core moral value of
fairness and our society’s commitment to the common good. And it works: Before
it was enacted, half of all Americans spent their “golden years” in poverty.
Social Security has saved the great majority of us from old-age penury. Where is the morality in stealing away this earned retirement — and the modicum of dignity that comes with it — from millions?
Besides, a sermon on the morality of entitlements should never
come from a congress critter’s mouth.
Ryan himself wallows in a mud pit of congressional entitlements
that working stiffs couldn’t imagine getting:
- A $223,500 annual paycheck,
- A free limousine and chauffeur,
- A maximum-coverage health plan,
- A tax-paid PR agent, a lavish expense account, free travel — and, of course,
- A platinum-level congressional retirement program funded by the very taxpayers whose Social Security he’s out to kill.
Yet Ryan wonders why Congress’ public approval rating is
plummeting toward single digits.
OtherWords
columnist Jim Hightower is a radio commentator, writer, and public speaker.
He’s also the editor of the populist newsletter, The
Hightower Lowdown. Distributed by OtherWords.org.