Pay attention to your next Social Security check or electronic deposit.Security income, whether you get a check or an electronic deposit....note what it is now called...see below.. Have you noticed, your Social Security check is now referred to as a "Federal Benefit Payment"? I'll be part of the one percent to forward this. I am forwarding it because it touches a nerve in me, and I hope it will in you. Please keep passing it on until everyone in our country has read it. The government is now referring to our Social Security checks as a “Federal Benefit Payment.”This isn’t a benefit – its earned income! Not only did we all contribute to Social Security but our employers did too.It totaled 15% of our income before taxes.If you averaged $30K per year over your working life, that's close to $180,000 invested in Social Security.If you calculate the future value of your monthly investment in social security ($375/month, including both you and your employer’s contributions) at a meager 1% interest rate compounded monthly, after 40 years of working you'd have more than $1.3+ million dollars saved! This is your personal investment.Upon retirement, if you took out only 3% per year, you'd receive $39,318 per year, or $3,277 per month. That’s almost three times more than today’s average Social Security benefit of $1,230 per month, according to the Social Security Administration (Google it - it’s a fact).

And your retirement fund would last more than 33 years (until you're 98 if you retire at age 65)! I can only imagine how much better most average-income people could live in retirement if our government had just invested our money in low-risk interest-earning accounts.Instead, the folks in Washington pulled off a bigger Ponzi scheme than Bernie Madoff ever did.They took our money and used it elsewhere. They “forgot” that it was OUR money they were taking. They didn’t have a referendum to ask us if we wanted to lend the money to them. And they didn’t pay interest on the debt they assumed. And recently, they’ve told us that the money won’t support us for very much longer. But is it our fault they misused our investments? And now, to add insult to injury, they’re calling it a “benefit,” as if we never worked to earn every penny of it. Just because they “borrowed” the money, doesn't mean that our investments were a charity!
by anonymous

Any chickenhawk from either party that supports sticking our nation's nose where it doesn't belong... should have theirs chopped off, preferably at the C4/C5 junction...

At the same time, anybody who doesn't support welfare to work, mandatory (temporary) sterilization while on the dole, mandatory drug testing while on welfare... ought to have their heads examined, preferably under a scanning electron microscope, one cell layer at a time.

Social programs were supposed to be a hand up, not a hand out. The monies spent to reward ignorance, sloth, greed and indifference could be put to much better uses. ANY able bodied adult under retirement age that isn't employed or actively seeking employment, needs to be tossed in chains and put to work on litter crews, culvert cleaning/repair crews, loaned out to farmers to chop weeds and glean the fields after mechanical harvest.

Notice I said ANY, sh!t comes in many shades...

Dang WD,, Im aware of fraud, but DAAANG! What about those who arent commiting fraud? Are they guilty till  proven innocent?

If you are one of the all too common welfare cheats, then getting caught needs to have severe consequences.

Im down with that

Yea, well,, Get a JOB sounds good,, BUT,, we now have a BUnch of people who Want jobs,, but cant find one,,Dont expect that to get better.
Be carefulk what you say, it may just hurt you or someone you  love

Well baaaack to the OP... nice post.

I'm not sure that changing the name means much (federal benefit). Its certainly a federal liability.

One things for sure... Washington certainly has its head up its collective a$$.

PS: I had not heard any of the ideas about what foods can/cant be bought.. though I would agree with limits. It could be done very easy now with everything having a UPC.