Politics of Fear

Take away Social Security? Undo all of Medicare? Those are the threats. They are made to make others fearful, those of us – and all of us eventually – who currently benefit from the programs. These are the safety nets for all of us. Our retirement security is vested in Social Security; so too, our security in access to reasonable health care. Medicare does that to a large degree. But neither of these programs were designed to be the sole income and medical care for retired citizens.

No, each of us was supposed to save and invest for many years in order to accumulate financial reserves capable of caring for selves and spouses. That didn’t work out well for those who are not good at investing or saving. Nor did it work out for those who encountered severe set-backs on their road to retirement.

Taking a step back, however, both of these social safety nets are paid for – wait for it – not the government; no, government agencies are the organizations responsible for managing and administering the programs. We taxpayers have paid in all our lives to the Federal Income and Contributions Act – FICA. Payments come directly from our paychecks (our contributions) and a co-payment by employers of equal amount. These funds are held by the federal government and invested. Benefit payments are withdrawn directly from these amassed funds. Both programs pay for themselves.

Like insurance funding, not all retirees receive what they pay in. They die before receiving their share, or live shorten lives in retirement. On the other hand, some beneficiaries live far beyond what they pay in. It balances out, however, in the long run. Actuarial studies performed repeatedly monitor the adequacy of the funding; if adjustments in payouts or pay-in are needed, they are legislated repairs made to the programs.

So, a claim to kill either Medicare or Social Security are idle threats. They are made to shake people up. Besides, if any political party were foolish enough to follow through on such a threat, an uprising would take place that would make comparisons to the Civil War seem pale.

Threats made by politicians are studied tactics to upset voting blocs and detract their attention from another topic. Most of the time the American people are smart enough to see these threats for what they are – empty gestures.

The only time I have personally witnessed threats that worked were in 2016 when a minority was able to sway a presidential election to the perpetrator of the idle threats. That winner of the electoral college is currently sitting in the white house.

And this man continues to make threats that turn out to be idle, just to rattle the public and their elected representatives.  The current threat is to shut down the government if the congressional democrats don’t vote to fund the Wall separating America from Mexico. He claims it is to secure our borders. I ask him, how are you securing the watery borders of the Gulf of Mexico and all of the Pacific and Atlantic coastlines?  Hmmmmm? We don’t need a wall for $1 billion or the more accurate estimate of $70 billion. Totally useless and wasteful. He knows it; the threat is for power. But it will not work this time.

It will take another national election to repair this calamitous turn of fickleness. November nears! And that's no threat.

August 3, 2018