I have a serious problem with this word ENTITLEMENT.
In my younger days I discovered at one point that I could make more on welfare (aid to dependant children, food stamps, etc.) than I could at my job,
but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I made do, fed my daughter at my expense, did her teeth at my expense (paying for it now) and managed. All the while paying into the social security system with no option not to. As did my employers.
I am still paying into this system (and at a whole lot higher level) that supposedly guarantees me a modest stipend when I retire. Never mind they have increased the age at which I can retire. Never mind that big government has inflamed the generations behind me with talk of my being a financial drain on them in the future. I am still paying.
Again, I have no choice but to contribute to this system. I do realize that what I am paying in goes, in part, to paying the generation in front of me, my 80 year old republican mother for one. I also realize that I am a card-carrying member of the baby boomer generation and that there are a whole hell of a lot of us.
There was a war, they all came home and.....well, it wasn't my fault.
This is a program that I have supported and that my employers have supported (never mind the part about no choice) for FORTY-TWO YEARS. Had I been allowed to invest privately at the same rate (something being thrown out for discussion now), I would already BE retired long since.
I do NOT consider Social Security and Medicare to be ENTITLEMENTS.
I want an accounting. If all that money collected from all the idiots like myself (and my employers) had been set aside for the purpose for which it was intended and wisely invested I really don't think we would even be having this discussion.
Would we?