(from an email message received today) Subject: Guaranteed to Fire You Up! Please read this, and remember to VOTE. If this is true - we need to remember it in Nov when election time is upon us! Our Social Security Many years ago in Seattle, two wonderful neighbors, Elliott and Patty Roosevelt came to my home to swim on a regular basis. They were a great couple full of laughter and stories that today I continue to marvel at. Both are now deceased, but their stories remain. During the years of our friendship we had many, many discussions about Elliott's parents (President Franklin D.and Eleanor Roosevelt) and how his father and mother never intended for the Social Security and Welfare programs to turn out the way they are today. Elliott used to say that if his parents returned to earth and saw what the politicians had done to their programs they would have burned all of them in hell. Here is a story I received today regarding the Social Security Program and I immediately thought of Elliott's comments. I Hope you will read this and think about it. Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat, introduced the Social Security (FICA) Program. He promised: 1.) That participation in the Program would be completely voluntary, 2.) That the participants would only have to pay 1% of the first $1,400 of their annual incomes into the Program, 3.) That the money the participants elected to put into the Program would be deductible from their income for tax purposes each year, 4.) That the money the participants put into the independent "Trust Fund" rather than into the General operating fund, and therefore, would only be used to fund the Social Security Retirement Program, and no other Government program, and, 5.) That the annuity payments to the retirees would never be taxed as income. Since many of us have paid into FICA for years and are now receiving a Social Security check every month -- and then finding that we are getting taxed on 85% of the money we paid to the Federal government to"put away" -- you may be interested in the following: Q: Which Political Party took Social Security from the independent "Trust Fund" and put it into the General fund so that Congress could spend it? A: It was Lyndon Johnson and the democratically controlled House and Senate. Q: Which Political Party eliminated the income tax deduction for Social Security (FICA) withholding? A: The Democratic Party. Q: Which Political Party started taxing Social Security annuities? A: The Democratic Party, with Al Gore casting the "tie-breaking" deciding vote as President of the Senate, while he was Vice President of the US. Q: Which Political Party decided to start giving annuity payments to immigrants? AND MY FAVORITE: A: That's right! Jimmy Carter and the Democratic Party. Immigrants moved into this country, and at age 65, began to receive Social Security payments! The Democratic Party gave these payments to them, even though they never paid a dime into it! Then, after doing all this lying and thieving and violating of the original contract (FICA), the Democrats turn around and tell you that the Republicans want to take your Social Security away! And the worst part about it is uninformed citizens believe it!
All true, but I really believe that had the Republicans been the majority power during those years the results probably would not have been much different. You give politicians the key to the bank and they will spend, spend, spend. It's the only way they can justify their being. Power corrupts.
The initial tax rate was 2.0% of the first $3,000 of the employee's earnings, significantly different from the numbers you provided. The Carter administration made immigrants who had never paid into the system eligible for SSI (Supplemental Security Income) benefits when they reached age 65. SSI is not a Social Security benefit, but welfare, because the poor elderly are entitled to SSI regardless of work history. Likewise, SSI is not an entitlement, because there is no right to SSI payments. The 1983 amendments to the SSA, resulting from the 1982 report of the Greenspan Commission empaneled to investigate the long-run solvency of Social Security, taxed Social Security benefits for the first time. Who was Alan Greenspan, a bleeding heart liberal, huh? Who was president in 1982-1983? Under the 1983 Amendments to Social Security, signed into law by President Ronald Reagan, a previously enacted increase in the payroll tax rate was accelerated, additional employees were added to the system, the full benefit retirement age was slowly increased, and up to one-half of the value of the Social Security benefit was made potentially taxable income. There are other inacuracies as well but I have neither time nor interest to go through these two documents with a toothcomb looking for discrepancies.