TALKING TO A STONE WALL

The Social Security system is in deep trouble no matter what the Marxists in the National Socialist Democrat Party (NSDAP) say. And these power-hungry demagogues have got a lot of the oldsters now living at least partly on their Social Security checks all riled up.

According to media reports (they're not lying all the time) members of Congress are being scared witless by cohorts of outraged and highly vocal old fogies who show up at town hall meetings called by congressmen and women to explain the need to reform the system before it comes crashing down. Many shout and hoot and cackle and generally act like a bunch of spoiled brats and they scare the hell out of our courageous members of Congress who scurry back to Washington with their tails between their legs, weeping and wailing and gnashing their teeth and complaining that they are in danger of  being electrocuted by the third rail of American politics the president is trying to get them to touch.

Some of these reports have focused on town hall  meetings in Florida a state overloaded with doddering old members of the Social Security brigade. They are among the most shrill foes of doing anything about Social Security even if it means that doing nothing will destroy the system and guarantee that those younger than 55 will never see a cent of the money they are now paying into the system to fund all those monthly checks old folks are now getting.

I can't help but notice that it was in Boca Raton, Florida that some of these elderly voters had to go running to mental health therapists to get help in dealing with the psychological damage they suffered as a result of the re-election of George Bush. It scares me to think that people like this can kill reform by frightening members of congress from backing the President on this issue.

Like the members of Congress, I've been trying to explain that folks such as me now on the Social Security dole have not get a damned thing to worry about. As the President has insisted over and over again, any changes in the system will have absolutely no effect whatsoever on those now getting their Social Security checks, or for that matter anyone over the  age of 55. No effect at all.

Unfortunately hordes of those now on the system or others in the age-55-and-over phalanx don't seem to be listening. They remind me of the story of the old Jewish gentleman in Jerusalem who prayed constantly at the wailing wall from dawn to dusk, day after day for forty years. When asked if his prayers were being answered  he replied "Are you kidding? It's like talking to a stone wall."

It appears that trying to convince a lot of my  fellow older Americans they have nothing to worry about reform of Social Security is like "talking to a stone wall."

So cup your wrinkled hand to your tin ear and listen carefully: PLANNED REFORMS OF THE SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM WILL HAVE NO EFFECT ON THOSE NOW GETTING THEIR MONTHLY CHECKS, OR ANYONE 55-AND-OVER AND SOON TO BE ELIGIBLE.

Got that?

Understand that to the members of the NSDAP the Social Security system is two things: 1. It's an issue they trot out in election years  to scare senior citizens ("Beware" they screech - "The Republicans are out to kill Social Security and drive you out into the streets to starve and freeze to death," and 2. as a gravy train they can loot at will - taking the FICA tax money out of the Social Security Trust fund and replacing it with I.O.U.s - that way they can fund all their Marxist schemes without hiking income taxes.

That's what it's all about, and they are at it once again, lying to seniors about the President's plan to reform the system, claiming that there is no crisis even though together with President Clinton they insisted back in the 90s that there is, and dishonestly implying that the reforms will endanger senior's monthly checks.

Art Linkletter took note of that canard when he recently told Fox News' Neil Cavuto "If your doctor told you that the colonoscopy you just had revealed a small cancer which is going to kill you in 25 years, I'll bet you'd consider yourself in crisis right now, wouldn't you?"

He also took aim at the AARP, founded during the 1960 presidential campaign to help Jack Kennedy among senior voters and headed for years  by a former Democrat Capitol Hill aide, Cy Brickfield.

"The AARP [a big critic of the Bush plan] is probably the largest liberal lobby group in Washington, with some 33 million people ..." He could have added that they are now helping the NSDAP in their attempt to kill  reform of the system.

And before any of you professional senior citizens start cackling at me for calling you old fogies understand that:  1. I'm a very old fogie myself. In July I'll enter my 80th year and, 2. I'm probably older than any of you so just shut up - I can't hear you anyway.