For nearly two years, we’ve been told all working people might be receiving a $2,000 check. I’ve heard it called a tariff rebate check. I’m betting you didn’t receive yours, just like me.
Now we’re hearing about a $5,000 check that might be sent out to every American adult, but there’s a caveat: Republicans have to win enough seats in the house and senate during the upcoming midterm elections. I saw a report that claims that if the Republicans can keep control of the House and Senate, our government can afford this massive gift. I don’t know about you, but after the past half-dozen years, our bank account sure could use the addition of both of those checks, but can America really afford these “promises”?
It seems odd that anyone charged with the task of running our government can claim they have this bonus money to send to us when constant claims are being made that Social Security won’t be lasting long, or the claim that in only a few years those people receiving the Social Security “benefit” will see a good-sized cut to how much they get each month.
I’m not sure when our politicians lost track of the fact that Social Security is NOT a “benefit” – most of us collecting that check each month had money deducted from our paychecks every pay period. Our employers were also tasked with matching the amount taken from our paychecks every pay period. After owning a business for nearly 40 years, I can tell you those withholding costs were seldom easy to pay, but it was a part of doing business and a way to help our employees prepare for the time they were lucky enough to retire.
Nobody in the government can rightfully claim that Social Security checks are a “benefit” – the amount I receive each month is based directly on how much I and my employers donated to the fund each pay period through reductions to my paycheck, and matching funds sent by my employers.
It’s my opinion, and it probably doesn’t mean much to important people, but our government messed up the Social Security system when they started dipping into the funds to pay for programs and expenses, when they should have left “our” money alone. That’s right, those funds are our funds.
There have been many, many times I’ve wished the government would have been required to send me a check that came from the funds I and my employers sent to the program – with interest, of course. Unfortunately, I have no way of calculating how much that check should be, so I’m stuck doing the best I can to make what funds I do get each month to pay the bills I have.
Oh, let’s not forget that those receiving Social Security checks each month get a Cost-Of-Living Adjustment each year. The interesting thing about the annual gift is that the increase is never really enough to make much of a difference – especially when the increase in the amount of money taken out of our check to pay for health insurance eats up a good portion of our increase every year.
Paying what seems like ten times what we used to pay for beef – paying large increases in nearly all grocery items – paying over $4 per gallon at the gas pump – paying ever-increasing taxes (especially real estate taxes) – paying crazy prices for prescription drugs – and more – leaves me no doubt about why I’m 70 years old and still working a part-time job to help make ends meet.
The saddest thing in all this is that I don’t see much of a chance that our government will be doing much to change this. Too many of them have lost touch with the real world, where too many people are forced to make very difficult decisions about what they can afford and what they can do without every day.
Have A Good Week!
