No wonder you have tears in your eyes. We’re peeling the onion that is Social Security.

SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS!!!

Jim Gries

February 27, 2011

Excuse me, Mr. President

This week President Obama said: "When it comes to choices about our budget and priorities, we have found common ground before, Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill came together to save Social Security".  Excuse me, with all due respect Mr. President, as a member of the custodial generation, and more importantly a certifiable grandparent, I find your statement lacking in fact, an insult to my intelligence, and quite frankly, an affront to my 15 grandchildren.  It's exactly why meaningful dialogue on this issue is so lacking; you can't begin with fairy-tale statements, and expect to end up with logical real-world solutions.  The common ground you referenced began with Reagan and O'Neill sipping suds at an Irish pub in DC 30 years ago, and thirty years later millions of middle class working Americans are waking up with a financial hangover.  In other words the “common ground” Social Security solution has put middle class America on shaky financial ground.  

No doubt Social Security has been a force for good, however post 1983 its morphed into a cancer on middle class working Americans.  Evidence can be found littered across main street America; lost jobs, home foreclosures, bankruptcies, and financial institutions unable to fund business growth and new job creation.   2.54 trillion dollars of potential Social Security trust fund assets have been turned into a 2.54 trillion dollar debt.  Mr. President, that’s a 5 trillion dollar net loss, and that’s what this conversation has to be about; “common ground” be damned.  Personally I pencil in the “I’m entitled” box, however at the same time the left side of my brain is asking, if you’re entitled who’s obligated?   That intra-gray matter conversation informs me there’s more than one party who has a stake in the outcome of this Social Security debate.  One wants their retirement benefits fully funded until the day they expire, and another would like to have more of their paychecks left to build their own retirement estates.  That’s why this conversation belongs in the intra-generational conference room, and has to be built on “solid ground” not political common ground.  

We’ve completed a preliminary assessment of the issue, demonstrating the results of the 1983 “common ground” legislation: http://sobreport.com/?p=66  Then built a “solid ground” treatment plan that allows middle class working Americans, their families, and the communities they call home to prosper again: http://sobreport.com/?p=70  Finally Mr. President, common ground solutions crumble under financial tremors, while “solid ground” solutions are built to withstand financial quakes. 

Take the stick out of their eyes, and put a carrot in their future.  Be the seed in your community; we provide the fertilizer, and growing directions.

Jim G.

352.293.4496