Hey Buddy Can You Spare $40?

Thank God this is the holiday season, because I'm in a far more forgiving mood of the shenanigans of our Congress. I understand that the payroll tax break was supposed to be temporary. I get that people view it as a entitlement now. I don't get why it has to go back up to $40 per pay. Why doesn't Congress try half that amount and call it a day? And why does the House think they can bully the Senate into anything? Those Senators will be in office much longer than their House counterparts. The Senators can wait it out.

I don't like paying Social Security taxes any more than the next guy. As a self-employed person, I now get to pay double! Yippee! By the time I'm of age to collect my share, there will be much less 'share' for me to draw upon. I'll only receive a percentage of what I would have had I been born in the early baby boomer years. What really irks the hell out of me is the people on Social Security that shouldn't be on it because it was never designed for them. Disability, for example. Don't get me wrong, I understand that people are disabled and cannot work, or can only work part-time, but I don't think their checks should be drawn from the fund that working people pay into as a supplement to their retirement. I think the funds should have been separated long ago. Combining Medicaid and disability seems a more plausible marriage to me. As for people that have not worked outside the home, but still draw Social Security? I don't agree with that either. I understand that with the generations that are now 70 and up that many women did not work because the tradition was to stay at home and take care of the children. Okay, I'll give them that. After that generation, cut them off. People born in the 1950s were raised to work. ALL OF THEM. Social Security was not designed to pay for a man or woman with a degree that has chosen to do the "best thing for the children" and stay home to raise the kids for 18 years and then, well, they're too old to reenter the work force, right? Please. They can work from home at least and pay their damn Social Security taxes. There shouldn't be anyone drawing from the fund that hasn't had a damn job after separating out the disability quotient. It simply wasn't designed to provide for anyone else. 

Other people that shouldn't draw from Social Security? The very rich. Many look at that check as a joke. Many don't receive any distributions from it anyway because they earn too much off their investments. I know I heard stirrings of some Congress members wanting a law that if a person has $XX in assets they'll be ineligible for Social Security. Although the idea has merit, I'm not certain it's all that fair. Maybe make the person use up $XX in assets before they can draw Social Security.... kind of like Medicaid doesn't allow you to have $X in assets or you're ineligible for Medicaid. 

I'm sure these aren't going to be popular opinions or flawless ideas. But, they're no worse than what Congress has going at the moment and that's just bullying and a lot of name calling. Yep, that's always solved everything in the world. So happy they're continuing the tradition.