The Autumn Years

While I was waiting in the reception hall of the Counselor's Section for my appointment with the Federal Benefits officer I watched CNN news on the wall mounted television.  The embassy won't let you bring your cellphone into the compound.  I had to turn mine off and hand it over to security at the fortified entrance gate.

The topic on the news was the imminent shutdown.  A relative handful of Trump loyalists were making all sorts of insane demands that had forced House Speaker McCarthy to approach Democrats for a compromise solution.  At the 11th hour yesterday an agreement was reached and a shutdown was averted.  Chuck Schumer is now seen as the man of the hour, but the temporary funding bill is only good for 45 days so we may repeat this ugly scenario in November.  I can only hope McCarthy won't let himself once again be led by the MAGAts in his party, as they only amount to two dozen at most, barely ten percent of his ruling majority.  

These same guys had defeated McCarthy's bid to be Speaker 14 times this past January before gaining concessions from him, namely plum roles on House committees where they can throw their monkey wrenches into the works. Now they want to join with Democrats to oust McCarthy.  Priceless!  

The ringleader of this venomous group is Matt Gaetz.  His oversized forehead unfortunately doesn't include very much in the way of brains inside.  His goal was to defund the justice department so that it would no longer have the money to prosecute Trump.  However, he threw in some bit about slashing social security by 30 percent, which has absolutely no bearing on the budget, as it is funded through a separate FICA tax.  Gaetz also wants to raise the age before senior citizens can start collecting benefits, which is even more odd since the majority of his electorate is over 60.  You would think this would go against their best interests, yet the 41 year-old Butthead is a crowd favorite among MAGA supporters and is thinking about running for governor of Florida next time around.  The state where I lived for more than 25 years is already a dumpster fire thanks to anti-woke Governor DeSantis.  I don't think it would survive Butthead Gaetz.  

The FBU representative called me up to the bullet-proof glass window.  The embassy is heavily secured both inside and out.  I just wanted to know what my status was as I had stopped receiving benefit notices in the mail some years ago.  He said it was all done online now and that I could access my account through the social security portal.  However, he wanted to update my personal information and we had a nice chat in the process.  He said I was eligible to apply for early social security but he recommended I wait until I was at least 67 unless the Republicans don't hack it apart first.  He had been overhearing the news too.

It's not like I would collect very much as I last paid into social security in 1997.  All my current taxes go to Lithuania where I get health care coverage and am slowly building a little bit of a pension.  Still, it would be nice to have my social security when the time comes.

What most Americans fail to realize is that social security is self-sustaining, built on the same principles as any pension plan in that you get as much out of it as you put into it.  Over the nearly 90 years that the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) has been in existence it has not once failed to pay its eligible recipients.  Yet every election cycle Republicans act like it is going to collapse at any moment.  The only real danger is Medicare, which has had a hard time keeping up with rising medical costs, something the current Biden administration is trying to contain.

I never understood why Americans fall for this line of bunk.  You would think they would understand that FICA is separate from income tax, as their pay stubs note the two separately.  Unfortunately, many seem to believe it all goes into the same pot.  This is certainly what Republicans want them to think, as they would love nothing more than to raid this $3.2 trillion piggy bank, which they often do anyway to meet their budget shortfalls.  As Americans, I would think you would want to protect your pension and health care plans as you have literally been paying into it all your life.

In countries like Lithuania you don't have to wait until you are 67 to get health coverage.  It comes automatically as long as you pay your taxes each year.  As a resident alien paying taxes I get health care.  This includes dental care as well.  If I want extra services I can go to a private clinic and pay for it, but for the most part I have been happy with the health care I have received through the public system.

Only in America do you have to pay for health insurance that you won't receive until you're 67 unless you file for disability benefits beforehand.  In the meantime you have to work out something with your employer, who will pick the absolute cheapest health insurance policy or HMO, and hope that you don't ever have to use it beyond annual check-ups and common ailments.  Otherwise, you will be stuck with huge bills.

As it is, Americans apply for more personal bankruptcies than any other country's residents largely due to health care bills.  A staggering 67% of these bankruptcies are directly related to medical expenses that Americans are unable to meet.  You would think Republicans would address these issues but no they just want to cut your hard earned benefits even more so that you get no relief even in old age when you need medical coverage the most.

It is impossible to comprehend this level of ignorance until you see another startling statistic.  A recent study by the US Department of Education found that more than half of American adults lack basic proficiency in literacy, reading below a sixth grade level.  This puts Americans on about the same level as adults in developing countries, and well behind adults in industrial countries.  The Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy calculated that this is costing the country as much as $2.2 trillion per year, which is approximately the same size as the annual federal budget.

Ignorance is not bliss but rather a severe handicap and one that Republicans appear to exploit.  With this staggering level of functional illiteracy, Americans become easy prey for populists like Trump and Gaetz.  They simply have no means of discerning what is actually going on around them and put their trust in these psychopaths.

However, if this showdown over the budget in Congress taught us anything it is that these populists form a very small minority of the Republican party and that there are clearer heads willing to work out compromises with the Democrats to avoid unnecessary shutdowns that would cost us billions more.  That means these quiet Republicans need to stand up to "bully boys" like Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Green and never allow them to circumvent the process again. They also need to quit lying about social security, as Chris Christie often does, and address the real issues constraining our budget.  Namely the lack of tax accountability, particularly among the rich.

You balance the budget by either increasing revenue or cutting domestic spending or a combination of both.  The only way to increase revenue is through income and corporate tax, not FICA as that money is specifically earmarked for Social Security and Medicare.  The only way FICA goes bankrupt is if Congress keeps borrowing from it to cover the ever growing national debt.  Then we will really be in deep trouble as the country will have tens of millions of elderly citizens who will have their prime source of revenue and medical coverage cut off with no means of making up for it other than to work as Walmart greeters or some other menial position.  

I really do hope clearer heads prevail as I would like to think that in five years my Social Security benefits will be available to me so that I can have a little bit of extra income.  I feel I earned it given the amount of money I paid into FICA the years I worked in the United States.