Social Security Reform

Another letter to my representartives.






Dear Senator,
This is a busy month. Buy outs and appropriations. How will money be spent in the future?
One area that needs to be analyzed is Social Security. There is always talk of Social Security reform, but nothing is ever done.
I have a suggestion.
Social Security was established to assist retirees with the "golden" years. It was to be a little something to help augment whatever funds they had saved for retirement. If it had been left alone to function in its pure form, we would not be having the crisis we are currently facing.
For the past forty years Congress has been changing the ways Social Security funds are to be used. In addition to borrowing from the fund at their leisure, Congress also decided that the Social Security fund would be used to pay workers disabled for more than a year, their spouses and children. In addition Social security pays survivor benefits for children until age 18 and for spouses until the youngest child is 16. Of course, if the spouse is 60 or over they will get their benefit.
The majority of the benefits paid by Social Security are disability related, not retirement related.
What Congress needs to do is allow Social Security to function as it was planned - as an aid to retirement.
The first thing Congress needs to do is get Social Security out of the disability business. Logic dictates that the Department of Labor should be responsible for workers who can not work. I propose that each working, tax payer pay a 1% tax for disability. Their employer would also pay 1%. If a person meets the disability requirements, as they do now for Social Security benefits, the Labor Department will pay the individual.
With the disability burden removed from Social Security, the trust fund should be able to support the retirees it was created to assist.
I ask that you introduce legislation to allow Social Security to perform its original and true function - to assist retirees.
Thank You
Michael Wolfe