Burnt Orange Report

It's my day off

By Nathan Nance

Thursdays are my days off and I like to spend them with friends. This Thursday was no exception because I spent the night with a friend who just passed his ASVAPB test and is about to embark on a journey to become a nuclear sub computer technician. Needless to say, I don't like the idea of someone who is like a brother to me in a tiny metal coffin floating around the ocean waiting for a reactor to go critical. But to each his own.

No, we celebrated with heart-clogging Swiss melt hamburgers and onion rings followed by a trip to Blockbuster so we could rent Transformers: The Movie (can you tell none of us have girlfriends?). I finally got home at midnight to watch the hours of DVR recorded news shows that I missed.

I was lucky enough to catch something on C-SPAN, though. The Campaign for America's Future held a forum devoted specifically to talking about why privatization of Social Security is bad. A lot of things they covered we've gone over already and some things we might get into in the future. I really want to link this to something in Jim's earlier post about problems with Medicare. Social Security is mostly solvent and will continue to be so well into the next decade and beyond without changing a thing. The real problem right now is the rising cost of health care and how much it is sapping from the fixed incomes of retirees. A huge portion of the monthly Social Security check goes to paying part B of Medicare and other health costs.

Not only will it eat the babies, but the elderly and anyone paying payroll taxes. Once health care is under control and the cost is kept down, that check will go a lot further towards the cost of living.

I cannot stress enough that Social Security and Medicare are important safety nets that people in this country need. Social Security was never meant to leave large sums of money in your pocket when you die, it was for those who probably worked hard their whole life and never saved a dime because they didn't have those kinds of wages. If all else failed, Uncle Sam would make sure you had enough to live on or had enough to pay for medicines you need. It's a right that all Americans share and a right we are all guaranteed. I can't believe anyone would want to turn their back on the kind of rights we are talking about here or about making sure others have those rights.

It just goes to show you that, even on your day off, there is still work to be done.

This is a guest post by Nathan Nance. Nate is a sports/news clerk at the Waco Tribune-Herald and writer/editor of Common Sense (finally updated) a Texas-based Democratic Web log. He can be reached at nate_nance@yahoo.com