For decades, American elected officials from both parties have been robbing blind the Social Security trust fund in order to pay for ridiculous things like studying the mating habits of black widow spiders in the desert and new methods of not offending Muslims. I can’t think of one downside of the demise of black widows and, as to the latter, I assume they want to keep their heads on straight. For decades, I got an annual form that showed the history of my annual payments into the fund which began when I was 14 or 15 years old. For the last several years, I have not gotten that report and I wonder why. These same politicians have, in recent years, started calling Social Security an ‘˜entitlement’. That is an ominous sign. Welfare and food stamp programs wherein recipients get money without having to work for it are entitlements. I and those like me who paid into Social Security want our money back with interest. Is that too much to ask? I think it may be. I am told there are strategies as to when to retire and apply for the return of my money. I even ordered a book on it at the behest of a friend. Unless you are an actuary, it is pretty boring reading. Still, I used a simple online calculator which determined I would get about $18,000 per year. I reviewed the numbers it ‘˜assumed’ and they were much lower than what I actually paid in so my income should outpace the projection. The estimate would bring me two and a half times the annual salary of my first job out of college ‘“ a job I was glad to get in the crushing economy of the mid-1970s. So, the question remains when to apply. It seems every week I find a story of mammoth waste of money from the Social Security trust fund which is just a huge Ponzi scheme that cannot possibly sustain itself. This is the most recent. Between 1962 and January 2015, 133 Nazi war criminals drew $20.2 million in Social Security benefits. It took a new law called No Social Security for Nazis to stop the abuse. Those who served in the Nazi SS robbed our SS blind as their final atrocities unto mankind. Barack Hussein Obama has used executive orders to rewrite policies of all types. Could he not have used his pen to stop this? Did he care? Does anyone in Washington care? Time has flown by. I will be 62 years old next September and eligible to take back my money. By the grace of God, I have survived one major health scare. I hope I have 20 plus good years ahead of me but nothing in this life is guaranteed. I think it may be time to grab the cash. What do you think? Walter Geiger is editor and publisher of The Herald Gazette.
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