To the Editor:

AARP recently sent out an email with this message:

“Social Security will continue to give people the full amount of money they’ve earned in the next several years. However, payments may be reduced by about 20% if Congress doesn’t act by 2034, according to the Social Security Board of Trustees’ latest report.

That’s why we’d like you to answer this quick question:

Would you be alright with Social Security payments reduced by 20%?

I guess so…

Heck no!”

You can imagine the response. I realize AARP is an interest group and like any interest group they exist for a specific reason, and that’s to keep benefits rolling for the oldsters, but by posing lopsided options like this, they’re not doing their constituents a favor. There should be another option reading something like this: Would you be alright with a compromise that would require some sacrifice by those that pay into the fund and those that receive benefits? Both recipients and payers into the system should have to sacrifice something for the fund to remain solvent. I think a reasonable plan should not penalize those that primarily or completely rely on Social Security and should only require those that can reasonably afford it to contribute more to the fund. And it should not tinker with age or any other eligibility requirements. I’m not an actuary, but I believe there are ways to do this.

Without a more robust legal immigration policy, our demographics are working against us. So, there will have to be a compromise for the Social Security fund to remain solvent. It was the same thing back in 1986, and Congress figured out a way to keep this fund solvent for 50 years. But we need to do it again. The Big Billionaire Bill is yet another budget busting giveaway to those who do not need it while stealing from those who do. It primarily benefits businesses and the very wealthy, neither of whom need the help. It also panders to those over 65 who mostly collect Social Security by offering an additional $6,000 individual tax deduction for three years. Of course, AARP cheered it. A nice sop to the oldsters! But, like the rest of the Big Billionaire Bill, it hands out money we don’t have instead of asking folks to give a little.

In 1961 John F. Kennedy made this famous ask: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” It seems like light years since Congress has had the guts to accept Kennedy’s challenge. This is one reason we’re in a gigantic black hole of debt that keeps getting deeper. But Congress will have to figure out how to do this, at least for the Social Security fund to remain solvent. By the way, I’m old enough to remember JFK’s speech. I’m 73 and think that, sometimes, we need to put country above a few extra dollars in our tax returns and Social Security benefits.

Glenn Duerr
Waynesville