Social Security: Originally printed around Sept 21

Article #2 for the first issue of 'Students For Reform'

"The Social Security Blanket Needs Patching"

The Social Security Act, signed by President Roosevelt on August 14th, 1935, was enacted to: “frame a law which will give some measure of protection to the average citizen and to his family against the loss of a job and against poverty-ridden old age”. In January 1937, taxes were collected for the first time and the first one-time, lump-sum payments were made that same month. Ernest Ackerman was the first person to receive Social Security benefits, he got a payment of seventeen cents that January. Ongoing monthly benefits started in January of 1940.

Social Security has generated approximately $10.7 trillion in income from 1937 to 2005, while only paying out about $8.9 trillion. However, for 11 of those years we did not create a surplus and we appropriated Trust Fund bonds to cover the difference. The estimates the bonds covered range from $24 to $26 billion dollars.

Most of you are going to expect me to take the side of Social Security and the approximately $1.8 trillion in surplus, but I only hope to show its current state and expose problems that the Social Security office itself admits.

First and foremost, Social Security is a tax, and anyone covered by Social Security in their employment is subject to- and must pay- the FICA payroll tax. Social Security has never been a voluntary program, despite whatever internet rumors you might have read. The Social Security Trust Fund created in 1939 has never been lumped into a generic government fund. Originally, benefits of Social Security were not taxable income, but in 1983 Congress authorized taxation of Social Security benefits.

As it currently stands, the retirement age for anyone born in or after 1960 is 67. Let’s assume, using the government’s Social Security website calculations (http://www.ssa.gov ), that you were born in 1980 and that you will retire in 2047 at 67 years old. You’ve made about $20,000 this year. With assumed inflation, you would have received around $4,100 dollars (roughly equal to $860.00 today. These numbers are in terms of current benefits). The website says these numbers could be cut from 26 to 28% by 2040 if our current system does not change. This information is based on the estimated ratio of workers to retirees falling from 3.3:1 (today) to 2:1 within the next 40 years. Over the next 75 years, our government expects a $4.6 trillion shortfall in revenue, with negative cash flows beginning in 2017.

- Geoff Whiting

Education: Originally printed around Sept 21

One of the two articles I wrote for the first 'Students For Reform' issue.

"I Like My Education with PB&J"

Now that we have entered, or at least partially entered, the real world we hear so much about, we have to start balancing our own budgets. Similar to most college students, I suffer from two vices: alcohol and pizza. As the months go by, the pizza-booze fund slowly shrinks and I have to make adjustments. Our state’s budget works the same way. Legislators propose and enact a budget based on the money we have and what they feel the state will generate. As the months go by, they don’t always hit their projection- so they cut into their beer and pizza fund. Except with our state it is edjucation and healthcare.

Yes, you read that correctly. The places where Louisiana cuts its funding from when short are indeed edjucation and healthcare. I’m not out to demonize our representatives; in their defense, they cut from these programs because it is all our State Constitution will allow.

Year after year we read about schools in disrepair. We’ve organized fundraisers and signed petitions to get money; some cities even tried to pass tax increases that were supposed to go straight to their schools. These barely made a dent when they were successful. And in many places, such as Lafayette, people were afraid that the tax dollars would never make it to the classrooms- assumptions based on previous taxes that only lined greedy pockets.

At the college level we do not see it as much. We are not around in the summer when schools can not afford air conditioning. These are the schools we, or our neighbors, will send our kids. These are the schools that future workers will attend, and I, for one, want them to count my change correctly the first time. Schools continue to fall apart, yet because money isn’t available for other state-supported programs, all they can do is pull it out of the school’s funds.

Similarly, our healthcare system has been dwindling for the past twenty years. We are losing healthcare units and nurses to run those units far too often. In Baton Rouge we no longer have a generalized healthcare clinic, just those specifically for women’s needs and sexually transmitted diseases. I’m glad we still have those, but I pity the people required to travel to Lafayette or Abbeville for a healthcare unit.

During Hurricane Katrina, we lost many doctors, nurses and safe places to go once it hit and inversely gained more sick and injured people. Clinics were forced to find replacements, but often there were no substitutes. Children’s Special Health Services lost volunteer doctors, mostly those from New Orleans, and simply shut down some of the clinics that were offered. Currently, they act as a referral service; their only option is to struggle with other state-run programs (generally Medicare) to schedule and pay for appointments and operations these children need. When nurses quit or retire, it is truly a crapshoot to see if they will be replaced or not.

I said I was not going to demonize our legislators, but in their own image of politics, I lied. The fact these remain the primary source of income the state taps into when government programs fall short infuriates me endlessly. The commercials aired during campaigning feature these politicians talking about how they care about us and share our values, yet they are taking away two of our basic needs. They’re treating our education and our healthcare like fringe benefits, things we can lose and still remain productive citizens. I am personally tired of being on the bottom of every state ranking. There is no way we can improve our productivity, our GDP, our quality of life without improving how our citizens are educated and taken care of.

- Geoff Whiting