Who Is Entitled?

I ask you, is a retired military service member entitled to his retirement pay?  What about a lifelong contributor to Social Security?  How about somebody, like me, getting both?  Weren't they earned?  I say the military retirement, definitely.  Throughout my 22 years on active duty, we were told again and again, not to worry, your pay is not much now, or it is not going to be increased this time to keep up with the cost of living, but man, are you going to be taken care of in retirement!  Where would I be today if I had just served out my commitment of four years, then got out and went to work in the civilian world?  Might be better off than with the military retirement, I  would guess.  If the military life were easy, a lot more would live it.  The percentage of those who go to a 20-year retirement and more is very small, compared to the total numbers who served a hitch then split.

Social Security?  Did I have a choice not to contribute?  Not a bit.  Yes, every payday from the first day I came on active duty they deducted for it.  No, the military retirement pay is not dinged for it now but that was part of the deal, too.  "Your retirement will go farther that way, you know," is what the recruiters and reenlistment counselors were encouraged to say.  All part of the package.  Now that it is time to take out, I have no compunctions at all.  I probably paid as much into it as my civilian counterparts through the years.

So that brings us to the 47% of Americans now drawing some kind of government check.  Are they all as deserving as your military who served, no matter the length of their service?  I say definitely not.  Now that it is time to start cutting back on the Federal government expenses, what do you think the odds are that all those Congresscritters, the majority of whom never served a day, will start eyeing our retirement and Social Security as the equal of foodstamp recipients?

Pretty darn good odds that they will get their knives out in the interest of "fairness" and start slicing us worse than the ones who never did a thing to earn their entitlements beside keep breathing in and out, and  some of their families will even collect after they stop breathing in and out.

We are heading for a disaster, economically, in this country.  Our military has always stepped up and will again.  I have seen letters to the editors of military retirement publications from retired people saying that they would gladly give up their retirement pay if it would help the government.  Admirable, but leave me out of that deal, okay?  I planned my life and my family's around the promise of a retirement check, thank you very much.  If that goes away, we are in a world of hurt, even with that oh, so generous Social Security coming in.

Now that you have all that in mind, take a look at this video by clicking HERE.  It's an eye-opener about who is getting what and who pays for it all.  And by the way,  yes you pay taxes when in the military, as I have all my life and continue to do from both my military retirement and Social Security paychecks.  No matter how much they cut us, we get to bleed our green into that entitlement cesspool all  the while.

What a country!