Communication
Imagine: No Social Security, Medicare
A
message from PEF Retirees President Jim Carr
We are all growing older and,
as I age, I wonder what it would be like if we had no Social Security
and Medicare.
Scary thought, isn’t it? Many seniors rely on both Social Security and
Medicare for their very existence.
Social Security and Medicare are government-run programs that have been
opposed by anti-government factions since they were first proposed
decades ago. These same factions still want to destroy them.
How would that affect you?
Imagine: No guarantee of any fixed income after all your years of
productive work; No largely pre-paid health insurance when you turn 65.
How would it affect your children and grandchildren?
They might be forced to work until they die.
How would it affect our country and our economy?
If Wall St. greed and over-mortgaged housing can send the global economy
into a tailspin for years, how devastating would it be if millions of
elderly and disabled Americans had no income or health care?
I think it’s a great deal to pay a Medicare tax of less than 3 percent
in exchange for medical and hospital insurance from age 65 until I die.
And it’s a bargain to pay a 6.2 percent income tax that provides me a
modest monthly income after age 62 or 66.
Opponents to these programs spread boundless misinformation about them.
Myth Number 1: “Social Security is going bankrupt.”
No. It has a surplus until 2036. And payroll taxes at current rates
would cover 77 percent of all future benefits promised.
Myth Number 2: “I would be better off if I kept my Social
Security taxes in my own investment account.”
Really? Just look at the market and current rates of return. How many of
us would voluntarily and faithfully put the money aside for retirement?
How many Americans are doing it now?
Myth Number 3: “You should get out of Social Security what you
put into it.”
Your benefits are based on how much and how long you paid into the
system, but your taxes paid for earlier retirees. Now, current workers
are paying for your benefits.
If that money were diverted into private accounts, the government would
be forced to borrow $6.5 trillion or more to keep paying the benefits it
owes us.
Retiring? Join PEF Retirees now! Membership equals benefits. Contact PEF Retirees at 800-342-4306 x 289 PEFRetirees@pef.org.
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