Your Opinion: Response to Smith on Social Security

Dear Editor:

Mr. Smith, I am glad to see that you have abandoned your argument that you own your Social Security money. The money that you put in paid for the people that were retired and any extra went into the Social Security Trust Fund. Why did we have extra money going into the trust fund? It was because Reagan (Republican) and O'Neal (Democrat) saw a problem in the future and fixed the problem before it became a crisis.

I have no faith that our politicians could come together and resolve problems before they become crisis. The only way that Social Security disability will remain solvent is for actions to be taken now to correct the problems with the program to minimize the pain.

Smith is correct when he states that we add 2 million people a year to our country. That is not the problem, jobs are the problem. In the past we had many middle-class jobs that paid good wages and benefits. Those jobs are gone because of policies put into place by the government. Unlike Smith, I blame both parties for the problems.

Companies turn to automation to reduce people because of regulation, mandated benefit packages and mandates to pay an equal amount to Social Security as the employee. Companies turn to other countries for educated people to manage and maintain the technology because our educational system is not training our young people for the high tech jobs. Illegal immigrants are working in the underground economy taking jobs away from citizens who pay taxes.

A global economy taxing structure causes companies to leave the country, to reduce their tax expenditures. We have wage stagnation where workers have to have two jobs. Our state workers will not get a raise this year and rank 50 out of 50 states in salary levels as an example.

These are only a few factors why our government needs to act before it turns into a crisis. The more people working and earning high wages the more money will go into Social Security Trust Fund to be paid out to the many different programs it supports.

Smith is correct. SSI and SSDI are two different programs. SSI is funded by the government general revenue fund. SSDI is funded by the worker contribution. www.ok.go/abletech/doc/Social Security Disability.

Trying to deflect the argument from Social Security Disability to hurting the children using SSI is poor debate tactics.