I read with interest the letter in The Madera Tribune on Sept. 2 by David Elliot. Mr. Elliot is communication director for U.S. Action, which is actively opposing attempts to decrease Social Security benefits.

Now while I have no argument with the general content of his letter, I do take exception with a few of his comments.

When President Roosevelt started the Social Security program in 1937, it was not meant to be a retirement program, it was meant to be supplement for retirement. I disagree that Social Security should be used to put people through college. There are other ways to get through college. One is by working part time, as Mr. Elliot did. I agree that the disabled should be helped with Social Security.

Mr. Elliot makes reference to president George W. Bush’s effort to privatized Social Security. Mr. Elliot and his organization, U.S. Action, leads the effort to defeat it. He states, “Given what happened to the stock market in 2008.” Well, I have news for you, Mr. Elliot, you and your organization’s defeating privatization hurt Social Security, it didn’t help it, and I’ll tell you why. The stock market still has a lot of value and is gaining more every day. Social Security is bankrupt.

Why is it bankrupt? Because the liberal Congress and Senate for many years have bled the Social Security coffers to continually increase what they call entitlement programs and left nothing but IOUs in the money’s place. The stock market still has 81 percent of its value. The Social Security coffers have zero value except for the IOUs? I’ll tell you how, by continuing to raise income taxes and raising the Social Security taxable earnings! The reason the politicians and their allies like Mr. Elliot and U.S. Action were against privatization was because if Social Security was privatized the politicians couldn’t get their grubby hands on the money.

I would like to show you what I meant by showing the accompanying Social Security table on the right.

Are you beginning to get the picture? The charted figures are what an employee pays. The employer matches those figures. Self employed individuals pay twice the above percentage.

Think about it, government run or privatize?

Sam Pistoresi,
Madera

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