Senior Citizens Who Vote for McCain Should be Required to Renounce Any Claim to Social Security or Medicare

WHAT IS WITH America's millions of "conservatives" who DERIDE "LIBERAL SOCIALIST PROGRAMS" - even as they benefit from Social Security, Medicare, GI bill, put their children through state colleges, etc? Working construction in Florida - hundreds of "active adult" gated, up-scale but affordable communities - I realized long ago that the people who were the biggest BENEFICIARIES of New Deal & LBJ Great Society programs, were donating their FEDERALLY INSURED savings dollars to... the very Republicans politicians who would put us back in a Great Depression in a New York minute!

Worse - what about the RIGHTY BUSINESS GROUPS that benefit from our SOCIALIZED big government spending? For example - the US ROADS and HIGHWAY SYSTEM! _Only _ THE BIGGEST construction project in human history, the font of many wonderful, good paying "private" jobs... and the BEDROCK upon which ENTIRE American industries were built, industries like the uber-conservative TRUCKING industry, the real-estate, construction, development and housing industries (suburbs would be impossible without SOCIALIZED TAX DOLLARS building access highways), the Right-Wing AUTO industry itself, and above that.. the Holy of American Right-Wing Holies, the OIL industry = ALL 100% DEPENDENT on our SOCIALIZED roads and highways.

And how many Wall Street fortunes have been amassed investing (or writing bonds for) those BIG GOVERNMENT SPENDING programs?
All successful "Conservative" politicians - Strom Thurmond, Trent Lott, Jesse Helms, Tom DeLay, Bush, Cheney, etc. - got their success BRINGING PORK big government spending home to their consituents and (especially) lobbyists and donors.

Now, clearly, Righty PROPAGANDA _DOMINATES_ the national discourse on these above issues, but especially regarding Social Security.

Social Security should really be very simple: taxpayer are "taxed" 6.25% per dollar _mandatory_ contribution, 6.25 _matched by employerss for a total witholding of almost 13%.

IF RUN CORRECTLY, Social Security is NOT a tax: IS IS A weekly CONTRIBUTION to YOUR PENSION retirement _AND_ DISABILITY INSURANCE funds!

No one would expect State Farm or Allstate Insurance to GIVE YOU DISABILITY INSURANCE for free... No one expects any corporate pension fund or Wall St. managed 401-k to DISBURSE PENSIONS FOR FREE... THESE ARE all CONTRACTS WE BUY into and make payments on!

Social Security, ideally, is slightly more than fully TEN PERCENT of EVERY labor dollar in America GOING TO FUTURE RETIREMENT or DISABILITY INSURANCE for that working dollar earned!

THAT - TEN PERCENT of EVERY DOLLAR EARNED - is the kind of money that drives Wall St. money-men MAD with LUST & ENVY!

To get their hands on that WORKING MAN's POT OF GOLD, saved by MANDATORY government witholding from millions of Americans, the Financial men are willing to be patient, persistent, and relentless demagogues.

They will tell us "PRIVATE MARKETS CAN DO BETTER!" even though Social Security runs at a 1%, ONE-PERCENT administrative overhead rate - quite impossible for any private industry to match.

So -Righties WILL TURN TO TURN Social Security INTO A TAX, so their lobbyists in Government can FUNNEL the funds to well-connected corporations, banking, and brokerage houses. (Actually, government can and has simply SEIZED some portion of Social Security trust funds to pay for general government expenditures - this is LOOTING Social Security to allow for TAX CUTS elsewhere.)

In sum, YOU MUST PAY IN - government powers of taxation - but what you get back will be SLICED, DICED, and FEE'd to death by the financial money men!

SOCIAL SECURITY is NOT an "ENTITLEMENT" any more than your life insurance policy with State Farm is an "entitlement".

Once again, another battle where the "Lefties" (like Rep. Dennis Kucinich) actually represent the solid, moderate, middle-road American point-of-view, but where RIGHTIES in press, media and corp. financed think-tanks DEFINE the narrative & terms of discussion as anyone to the 'left' of them is a flaming socialist commie pinko!

In sum, Righties ALWAYS LIKE a LOW WAGES, NO OVERSIGHT, NO regulations and NO social safety net economy.

That agenda will ALWAYS lead to thousands and millions of Americans being tossed out on the street, whether in boom-&-bust economies, or as a 3rd world banana-Republic way of life.

This election, American voters can see that agenda, stripped of its think-tank, corporate media, and GOP candy-coated talking points. Unfortunately, with the incredibly WEAK Democrat Party, we are ONLY entitled to an opposition party AFTER Republicans and Big Business WRECK everything in sight!

Mark -

Do you have data to share showing majority support for McCain by 65+?

When Bush went barnstorming the country in 2005 to push for privatizing Social
Security, figuring he had election credit to spend, he was stonewalled almost
everywhere. Except for the likes of Paulson, I'm not aware of any popular support
for decimating Soc Security. Are all senior citizens half demented? I doubt it.

There are those who advocate "means" testing for Medicare. That's a really pernicious
idea. Nothing can undermine a good universal program faster than making it look like
it's something for the "needy."

Colleen Clark
Cambridge, MA