I don't think the Congress should touch Social Security and Medicare on the backs of the taxpayer's. 

Congressional pay:  The people in the Congress have given themselves raises over the past several years...while voting down the minimum wage which is a disgrace!  Why don't the people in Congress take a pay cut...they're not worth what they make now!  Lead by example and tighten the belts of everyone! 

Earmarks:  This is the candy store for all the people in the Congress to fill their pockets, and not have to get approval from the Congress or anyone else.  Just stick your hand in the cookie jar, and help yourself to billions of taxpayer's dollars free of charge.  If the country is having a problem with the defecit, the finger can be pointed at the Congress itself!  Everyone has to be accountible...including those in the Congress! 

One Senator, who was called the 'King of Pork' got billions of dollars out of the cookie jar, for his state and was not accountable to anyone, etc.  He got his name on countless structures in his state over the years...courthouses; freeways; airports...and why not...the taxpayer's are the suckers in all this! 

Jobs leaving the country:    All these corporations are leaving the country...and whose fault it it?  The Congress, of course!  How can a person pay into Social Security without a job?  How can a person save anything without a job?  The Congress is not the solution...it's the PROBLEM!  And, who's at fault for this?  The American people, because they're nothing more than an apathetic couch potato, who have yawned all this away!  The American people today, don't know how to protest!

Foreign Aid;  The American people are fed up with foreign aid...giving away billions of dollars to other countries who hate us!  Other countries are going to have to fend for themselves in the future!  The American people are having enough trouble taking care of themselves! 

Immigration;  The American people are fed up with all these foreighners coming to this country, and taking advantage of the social services provided, which affects the national debt.  The American people are going to have to deal with this issue in the coming months and years...and if the people in the Congress don't act accordingly...kick all of them out!  Throw the bums out of the Congress...the democracy of the United States is run by the People...for the People...

Defense Department:  This war has to come to an end, before it bleeds the country dry!  All other forms of the military have to be whittled down...the base closings; aircraft production, etc. 

NASA:  Another waste of taxpayer's dollars!  This is creating jobs for the few!  The Congress has to get its priorities in order...and NASA is not a priority, in my view!  Billions of dollars are thrown away in space every year! 

The article shown below was published in the Albuquerque Journal on July 18, 2010 and was written by David Lightman of the McCatchy Newspapers.  The headline is entitled;

"No Social Security until 70?  It might happen"

The article reads;

 "WASHINGTON---Young Americans might not get full Social Security retirement benefits until they reeeach age 70 if some trial balloons that prominant lawmakers of both parties are floating become law. 

No one who's slated to receive benefits in the next decade or two is likely to be affected, but there's a gentle, growing and unusually bipartisan push to raise the retirement age for full Social Security benefits for people born in the 1960s and after. 

The suggestions are being taken seriously after decades when they were politically impossible because officials...and, increasingly, their constituents...are confronting the inescapable challenge of the nation's enormous debt. 

Social Security was created in 1935 with a retirement age of 65, but since then life expectancy at that age has increased by about six years, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

Today, the full social Security benefit retirement age is 66 for people born from 1943 to 1954.  It then increases by two months for each birth year (66 years and two months for those born in 1955-56 and so forth), until those born in 1960 or later get full benefits at age 67.

Raising the age eventually to 70 could prove to be politically acceptable because it wouldn't have an immediate social impact, but it would demonstrate that politicians are resolute enough to mend one ot the government's most popular social programs and to tackle the national debt.  If they did, they'd have substantial academic backing.

'For a while, there's been a consensus among economists that raising the retirement age makes a lot of sense,' said Richard Johnson, a senior fellow and the director of the Retirement Policy Program at the Urban Institute, a Washington research group.  Still, there are potential downsides.

'There are some incredible remifications to raising the age,' Barbara Kennelly, the president of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, 'Not everyone can work until they're 70.'  Despite such concerns, the trial balloons are firmily anchored. 

Last month, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., launched his in a major address to a Washington budget conference.  'We're lying to ourselves and our children if we say we can maintain our current levels of entitlement spending, defense spending and taxation without...bankrupting our country.' he said. 

'We could and should consider a higher retirement age or one pegged to life span, more progressive Social Security and Medicare benefits, and a stronger safety net for the Americans who need it most.'

Soon after, House of Representatives Republican John Boehner of Ohio told the Pittsburg Tribune-Review that the age 'eventually' could be raised to 70.  'Raising the retirement age...going out 20 years and not affecting anyone close to retirement, and eventually getting the retirement age to 70...is a step that needs to be taken,' he said.

'I think it's time we have an adult conversation about the problems facing this country,' Boehner added later to Fox News.  'Clearly, when it comes to Social Security, there's a problem.  We made promises our kids and grandkids can't afford.'  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., wouldn't rule out the option.

Hoyer 'made a very important statement about putting everything on the table,' she said, 'subjecting everything to scrutiny when it comes time to figuring out how we lower the deficit in a very transformational way.

Here's why it's being considered:  The federal governemtn faces a historic fiscal crisis.  The nonpartisan Congressional lBudget Office projects that publicly held debt could reach 62 percent of the gross domestic product by the end of this year, the highest since the Korean War year of 1952.  By 2020, the CBO warns, the debt could hit nearly 90 percent of the GDP.  History shows that when a nation's debt gets that high, it can cripple the economy. 

At the start of the month, the CBO issued a report suggesting that some adjustments must be made to Social Security's financing.  It projected that under the current rules, the system won't be able to pay scheduled benefits starting in 2039. 

However, the CBO also found that raising the full retirement age to 68 starting with workers born after 1966, or to 70 for workers born after 1978, and raising it gradually before that wouldn't significantly improve the system's financial outlook. 

The CBO said that raising the age to 68 would reduce Social Security spending by only 3 percent, or 0.2 percent of the GDP, in 2040.  A retirement age of 70 would save 6 percent, or 0.4 percent of the GDP.

The lawmakers stress that raising the full-retirement age should be only one of the series of Social Security changes.

 END OF ARTICLE;

The Congress should put their priorities in order for the American people...and NOT for themselves...or play politics with people's lives! 

In 2010...if the American people continue in their ways...that is...lazy and apathetic to what's going on in Washington...the country will be stolen away from them (right under their noses) while they're  still in their coma!

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