Social Security Cuts are Indeed Unfair and Unreasonable

Social security is one of the major programs offered by the US federal government. The Social Security Act itself encompasses various programs such as benefits for those unemployed, retirement insurance benefits, the Medicare and the Medicaid. The primary goal of the act was to uplift and protect the social welfare of every American citizen. It is interesting to note that the program is considered the largest government program in the world being also the largest expenditure in the federal budget of America.

The program has been viewed as widely successful for years now and millions of Americans have already benefited from it. Just recently, the Social Security Program was being threatened by numerous politicians including the President himself. There have been extensive rumors about the impending benefit cuts and a change in retirement age policy. From 66, the proposed increase in retirement age is either at 67 or even at age 70. Previous benefits for retirement and unemployment are all in danger of being reduced or worst scrapped.

Politicians and lawmakers who favor these benefit cuts argue that the program itself is now experiencing crisis with its financial future going bleak. There is the assumption that the federal budget cannot fully shoulder the cost of the program and thus would need to cut on its cost resulting in benefit cuts. What they don’t realize is that the Social Security program actually has a trust fund which is estimated to last until the year 2037 or might even last for more years.
Financially, the program is self-sufficient and will not need any help from Congress.

Politicians also argue that the rapid increase in retired and unemployment individuals may also increase the overall cost of benefits offered by the program. Over the course of 20 years, the recent cost of these benefits that is about 4.8 percent of the GDP will significantly increase to 6.0%. It is intriguing to note that these politicians actually noticed the smaller increase in Social Security spending while ignoring the bigger increases in defense spending. The people need these benefits to survive especially at this time of crisis and economic turmoil.

The age 70 retirement policy isn’t viable at all. It may still be reasonable for those who work in comfortable office-related jobs. But imagine the millions of Americans who work in harsh working environments or those blue-collar workers. These cuts in Social Security will deeply affect most Americans in one way or another. In this time of economic recession, more and more Americans will suffer when these cuts will continue. There is a huge need for politicians and lawmakers to realize the real situation of its citizens and set their priorities right.

U.S. Social Security Program: Overpayments and Unreasonable Granting of Benefits

Social security in the U.S. is very extensive involving the promotion of social welfare among citizens of the nation. The U.S. social security is directly funded by dedicated payroll taxes which in turn provide insurance to most individuals. The four major focus of the program is to provide assistance and benefits for survivorship, disability, retirement and death. These benefits have ensured that retirees, veterans and old people will get the necessary financial and medical support to live on with their lives.

The Social Security network is considered the largest social insurance program in the U.S. Because of the large amount of money involved, there have been numerous cases of misappropriation of funds that were reported. According to the Government Accountability Office which functions as a government watchdog, there are about 1,500 federal employees who may have received benefits that were not actually intended to be given to them.

A study found numerous cases where an employee received benefits despite earning well above the income cap. One cases indicated that a Transportation Security Administration screener was given $108,000 and is considered overpaid. It has been estimated that over 1,500 federal employees, 25% of them were employees of the U.S postal service and about 16% were defense department civilians, actually earned over $1.7 million a month. There may in fact be fraud going on considering degree of overpayments done in this program.

Another cases mentioned a Postal Service Worker working in Michigan who received a whopping $45,000 paycheck. That worker was granted disability benefits for having “mood and personality disorder” in 2004 but returned a year later to work. The payments continued until early 2007 and went back again in 2008. A repayment of $37,000 was again reported in 2008. Despite already receiving overpriced salaries and benefits, most of these employees also benefit from the economic stimulus payment amounting $250 each worker. Talk about how lucky these workers are receiving so much money without being held accountable.

There are more inconsistencies and frauds found in the social security program which the report has concluded. It is very sad to know that most of the hard-earned taxpayer’s money are just going to the pockets of federal employees who don’t even deserve it. The government should implement corrective measures to check the eligibility of every individual to various benefits offered by the social security program. Better accountability and transparency should also be promoted in the government to ensure that it is paying every federal employee correctly and reasonably. In these times of recession and crisis, we can’t afford wasting every bit of taxpayer’s money. The funds should instead be spent for various projects which will generate more jobs and eventually steer the economy to progress.