Letter to the Editor

 To the Editor,

Suppose that early in your employment you decided to set up 401(k) or IRA pension plans, contributing to them with each paycheck in the understanding that it would accrue you continuous modest interest and be available to you as an annuity at a planned retirement age. Suppose then, as you approached your retirement, the financial institution you had invested with declared: you need to work five more years to become eligible, and we’re taking a percentage of your accruals to provide bonuses for our managers. We would all be rightly outraged and call foul.

Isn’t this exactly what various members of Congress have proposed to do to Social Security? Oh, they’re using weasel-words to advance their plans - we hate to do it but we have no choice - but if you bother to listen or read, many among them have been broadcasting their intention very clearly. It’s no surprise; conservatives have hated Social Security since it was passed in 1935. Apparently they are uninterested in any government program that doesn’t turn a private profit.

 Make no mistake: Congressional Republicans plan to steal from our - mandatory! - Public pension plan financed directly from our earned personal wages, not from any other taxes. Their stated plans to “fix” it amount to “how can we best steal it?” They fully intend to break a public trust that insures we will have a small source of income after our retirement and don’t have to work until we die.

 We members of the public should threaten the continued employment of any Congressional member who attempts to advance this larceny.