How About ‘Hands on Social Security’?
For years, we’ve heard “Hands Off Social Security!”
Why?
Normally, navigating policy away from government programs is good policy.
Yet, with Social Security, that ship has sailed.
So much has been done to weaken Social Security over the years, it’s now hands on time.
We need fixes and sunshine.
First, let’s look at some history:
The Social Security Act became law on Aug. 14, 1935, during the depths of The Great Depression (1929-1941).
The concept of guaranteed retirement income sounded great at the time.
The benefit list was short: monthly checks to workers and retirees over the age of 65, unemployment insurance, aid to dependent children and aid to the disabled.
In 1940 the first benefits were paid.
As one can readily surmise, Social Security was a political bonanza.
Legislation in 1950, 1965, and 1972 broadened eligibility, increased benefit amounts, and added cost-of-living adjustments.
But 1968 was the killer. President Lyndon B. Johnson was fighting two very expensive wars simultaneously; the war in Vietnam and The War on Poverty also known as the Great Society.
LBJ’s solution?
Merge the Social Security Trust Fund with the unified budget process.
What does that mean in plain English?
LBJ stripped out all the considerable cash in the Social Security Trust Fund and replaced it with government IOUs (bonds, as we know them).
That system exists to this day.
Make no mistake about it, LBJ lost the war in Vietnam, the War on Poverty and the huge cache of cash in the Social Security Trust Fund.
What followed?
The breakup of the welfare families, a dramatic increase in crime and LBJ deciding on March not to run for a second full term, on March 31, 1968.
Suddenly, Social Security was “running out of money.”
In 1984, during the Reagan administration, high income families started paying income taxes on half of their Social Security income.
In 1994, the Clinton administration increased the amount of Social Security income subject to taxation to 85%.
The Biden years remain a mystery.
Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have targeted Social Security files for auditing, to let the country know if there is, or isn’t, any fraud or waste.
The Democrats have gone to friendly left-wing judges to shut down that effort.
That’s where it currently stands.
Of course one has to wonder why everyone wouldn’t support DOGE’s efforts.
If there are improprieties, we need to know about them and immediately take corrective action. If there are no improprieties, better yet.
Just tell us!
We can all celebrate together. Indeed, clean Social Security files can serve as an oasis of unity in our very divided nation.
Preliminary reviews of Social Security files have raised a few questions.
There are literally millions of “accounts” with beneficiaries over the age of 100; an impossibility. Of course, that, in and of itself, is not proof of fraud.
It does however hint of carelessness and incompleteness.
Hands on Social Security?
You bet!
America is entitled to a “clean” audit, with equally clean audit results!
The Social Security administration is entitled to state-of-the-art computer systems.
File storage needs to be electronic, not in mountain caves — literally.
Surely, obstructionist judiciary won’t prevail much longer.
Our country will get its deserved transparency.
Once upon a time adding the disabled to Social Security made a lot of sense, and sensibility. Then the politicians and bureaucrats reached for it, broadening benefit regulations.
Things went from “unable to work” to “unable to work at the last job you held.”
In other words, an injured police officer could get benefits for life, even if he was perfectly capable of doing a desk job.
Many very capable people have since gone from work to benefits.
And, last, but certainly not least; Social Security taxes are on President Trump’s agenda for elimination. Remember, today, at certain levels of income, 85% of Social Security benefits are subject to taxation at the taxpayer’s usual federal income tax rate.
Let’s all root for President Trump to keep that promise and eliminate that tax.
A perfect example of why this writer now declares, “Hands on Social Security!”
Sid Dinerstein is a former chairman of the Palm Beach County Republican Party. Read Sid Dinerstein’s Reports — More Here.
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