Social Security

A friend emailed this to me...

IT DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU ARE REPUBLICAN OR DEMOCRAT, CONSERVATIVE OR LIBERAL!
2008 Election Issue!!
GET A BILL STARTED TO PLACE ALL POLITICIANS ON SOCIAL SECURITY.
This must be an issue in "Election 2008 ". Please, Keep it going.
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SOCIAL SECURITY: (This is worth reading. It is short and to the point.)
Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions during election years.
Our Senators and Congresswomen do not pay into Social Security and, of course, they do not collect from it. You see, Social Security benefits were not suitable for persons of their rare elevation in society. They felt they should have a special plan for themselves. So, many years ago they voted in their own benefit plan .
In more recent years, no congressperson has felt the need to change it. After all, it is a great plan.

For all practical purposes their plan works like this: When they retire, they continue to draw the same pay until they die. Except it may increase from time to time for cost of living adjustments..

This is calculated on an average life span for each of those two Dignitaries. For example, Senator Byrd and Congressman White and their wives may expect to draw $7,800,000.00 (that's Seven Million, Eight-Hundred Thousand Dollars), with their wives drawing $275,000.00 during the last years of their lives.

Younger Dignitaries who retire at an early age, will receive much more during the rest of their lives. Their cost for this excellent plan is $0.00. NADA....ZILCH....

This little perk they voted for themselves is free to them. You and I pick up the tab for this plan. The funds for this fine retirement plan come directly from the General Funds;

"OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK"!
From our own Social Security Plan, which you and I pay (or have paid) into,-every payday until we retire (which amount is matched by our employer)-we can expect to get an average of $1,000 per month after retirement. Or, in other words, we would have to collect our average of $1,000.00 monthly benefits for 68 years and one (1) month to equal Senator Bill Bradley's benefits!

Social Security could be very good if only one small change were made.

That change would be to:
Jerk the Golden Fleece Retirement Plan from under the Senators and Congressmen. Put them into the Social Security plan with the rest of us then sit back..... and watch how fast they would fix it.

If enough people receive this, maybe a seed of awareness will be planted and maybe good changes will evolve.
How many people can YOU send this to? Better yet.....
How many people WILL you send this to??

The County I live in is facing a major monetary crisis. The County Executive, Legislature and Union Leaders decided to cut their pay in their attempts to balance the budget, to try to close an almost twenty million dollar gap. If you combine the total annual savings to the County from their pay cut, one could purchase a very nice, top of the line Fire Apparatus/Pumper. It doesn't sound like much, money wise in face of the multi-million dollar deficit, but the gesture was well received by the public. You just do not hear of politicians cutting their own pay.

In the 1950's, my state's inhabitants lost the ability to vote on pay increases for our legislators, and the ability to vote on our state flag and license plate design in the same bill. This was done in a special closed-door session, and remains unpublished to this day. One has to dig deeply into the records to find those laws. I am not sure when we lost, or if we were even able, to vote on the pay scale for our top government leaders. I am also not sure how much total saving would be gathered by instituting reasonable cuts in their pay and perks, but I would imagine it would run well into the millions.

I personally think this country would be better run if our leadership had to answer directly to it's citizens, in an almost corporate-like setting. If our elected leaders do well, then they can have their pay and perks, however, if the country is not doing so well, we should have the option to severely cut their pay, and curtail the many perks they enjoy.