Dear editor:
Be careful of closed door budget negotiations when it comes to our SS, which has been under attack since its inception in 1935 and has been highly efficient for 80 years operating on just 1 cent of every dollar collected. Private corporations need 10-30 percent.
We have been hearing the same lies since I was 30, that it won't be there when you get ready to retire, yet now I've been collecting it for over eight years. In the past they've tried pitting greedy grandparents against their grandchildren and that didn't work, so now it's the poor retirees against the people collecting SS disability. What's next?
The Republicans trot out the same lies every 20-30 years hoping people don't remember. Seventy percent of people polled, which include Republicans, Democrats, tea party and independents, want SS expanded, not cut for 75- and 85-year-olds. We're told the trust fund is being depleted.
It was established under Reagan to cover the baby boomer generation and it was expected to be drawn down around 2040 as they died off and then SS returned to a pay as you go system. The Republicans do not listen to the people, they only listen to their wealthy donors like Pete Peterson, Charles and David Koch, the Business Round Table, who all want to get their greedy hands on your retirement money, which they have been trying to do for decades. They do not want people to know they are doing this, so it is done in secret under the pretense that they are protecting it.
Call your representative now or write them and don't let up until they listen to you to expand, not cut, SS or their prophecy may just come true and it really won't be there when you get ready to retire.
Judith Zitko
Hot Springs Village
Editorial on 03/29/2015