Nov 2, 2018 2 min read

Sixty years ago, I got my first job: a 1958 Christmas employee at G.C. Murphy’s. I was a kid in high school, and I was so proud to be earning my own money. Of course, there were deductions for income tax, for Social Security.

Ever since, I paid into that fund, and my employers matched it. There was never any question about it: it was mandated by law. I couldn’t decide to just “opt out.”

When I retired, government actuaries calculated what my benefit would be, based on my contributions, those of my employers, and what their equations about my life expectancy said it should be, and there it was.

Now, some are trying to say that the spending patterns of the federal government should be balanced on the benefits of those who, for years, paid into this fund, assuming that when they aged into being a beneficiary, it would be there. As, indeed, it should be. The whole thing was set up as something about which we had no choice.

To renege on this established arrangement is nothing less than a default of a debt, which the federal government, by virtue of its mandate, assumed. Cal Thomas knows this, Republicans know this, Democrats knows this. Social Security is established law. Make it work.

Carole McIntyre

Waynesburg