Facts are just evil Liberal icky things!

There are many times in these days of tea party (anti) reality or misinformation(in my world, that's called lies) that I just have to take a deep breath and shake my head...and this misinformation(or lies) has infected our nation. We all saw the teabaggers with their signs saying, "Keep your government off of my Medicare/Social Security!" and the more informed of us thought, "How stupid can a person be to not know that both of those programs are government programs", but this is where we've gotten ourselves to and its time to educate each other with facts, not talking points. 
Social security is broke, medicare is broke, rich people need larger tax cuts so they can make more jobs(12 years of tax cuts have lost jobs, not created them). We hear the fear mongering daily, but what is the truth? Facts seem to be, for the right, evil liberal icky things...Glad you asked:
I think a good place to start with facts would be Social Security:

Social Security Myth Buster from the Alliance for Retired Americans

Social security is driving up the federal deficit

Social security doesn't add to the federal budget, it is fully funded by us, American workers. It is funded directly by payroll contributions from workers and employers, not tax funds.

Social Security trust fund is just a bunch of worthless IOU's!

The US Treasury bonds owned by the trust fund are the same as any other Treasury obligation, they are just as real as the ones that George Bush, among other rich right wing individuals, corporations and other governments own. In fact, Treasury bonds are listed as assets in financial profiles by rich people, corporations and governments--why does the right call them worthless IOU's when the little people own them? OH....a lie....

Social Security is going broke!

There is $2.7 trillion in the trust fund and is projected to grow to $3.7 by 2022. It is not going broke, its NOT in the red. It is paying out more in benefits than it is collecting in contributions, but the interest Social Security makes off of the Treasury bonds(you know, those worthless IOU's) makes up the difference. Similar shortfalls have occurred over 15 times since the 60's and congress has made changes to the program over time, but it has not cut back on benefits, rather congress has always opted to change the salary cap. What's the salary cap? I you make less than $106,000 per year, you pay FICA tax on every dollar. If you make $1 million? You still only pay FICA tax on the first $106,000--that's the salary cap. The cap has been changed to reflect salary changes through out Social Security history. The republican led congress doesn't want to change the salary cap, it wants to cut benefits---another lie.

Everybody needs to sacrifice. Cut senior's COLA's!

The cost of living adjustments(COLA) helps keep retirees with inflation. The average retirement benefit is around $1100, that's not exhorbinant, specially considering how gas and food have sky-rocketed this last year. BUT there are proposals to cut the COLA by moving it to a chained CPI(formula used to calculate the COLA). According to Social Security Actuaries, this would mean an immediate benefit cut and this cut would compound over time. This CPI ignores the true needs of America's retirees and tries to balance the budget on our seniors!

People are living longer, so it makes sense to raise the retirement age

Yes, life expectancy seems to have gotten better, but the facts(there's that evil liberal icky thing again) show that the reason life expectancy has lengthened, its because infant, child mortality has improved as well as a significant decrease in women dying in childbirth(that's cuz of those evil liberal things like pre-natal/neo-natal care and programs such as WIC)...its not that we are living longer, its because babies aren't dying. Another FACT is that average retirees are living abut the same amount of time as they were in the 1930's; the retirement age has been moved to 67. Raising it higher would just push retirement completely out of reach for many Americans.

What about means testing? We could cut benefits for Millionaires

The majority of Social security beneficiaries are not millionaires, only about 2% of benefits go to individuals with earnings over $100,000. To actually get any savings from means testing, it would need to hit people with incomes around $40,000---the middle class.  Again, if you want to make it more equitable, scrap the cap(salary cap). 

Illegal Immigrants are ripping off Social Security!

Illegal immigrants are ineligible to receive benefits(since 1996). In fact(evil liberal icky thing) undocumented workers contribute about $7 billion annually in FICA taxes which they are not allowed to claim.

Social Security is a burden to our youth

The burdens that youth have are no jobs, stagnant wages, student loan debt and a shift from traditional pensions to 401(k) plans. If anything, our youth will rely much more on social security than we do! We need to talk to them about the benefits of Social Security for old and young alike(survivor benefits, SSI) instead of pushing for cuts to Social security.


So, there's a list of facts, not fear mongering sound bytes. We need to educate ourselves and our families and friends to truth, so we are armed for the next onslaught of attacks on benefits we have earned and should be proud to have earned, not shamed into allowing them to disappear...so the uber rich can pay less taxes.