What Social Security is About

This reader who wrote Josh Marshall summed it up quite well [emphasis mine]:

Dear Josh-

Thank you for everything you are doing to shatter and dispel the falsehoods coming out of the administration about Social Security. I'm a 53 year old who began working at age 16. My mom, widowed at age 36 with 3 young kids, brought us up to believe that in America, you could strive toward your dreams and carve out your own future. She returned to work, of course, but could not have kept our family together without the benefits she received from Social Security and my Dad's veteran's benefits - he was a U.S. Marine who fought on the beaches of Iwo Jima.

I chose a path that allowed me independence in my life. I've been an independent contractor in my profession throughout my career, as has my husband. We pay our own health insurance premiums (currently $967 / month Oxford Health Plans, dig that!) make yearly contributions to our own IRA's, own our house, pay our taxes, and willingly pay our SSA contributions.

Mr. Bush wants to denigrate the service and the sacrifices of my father and my mother by saying their children don't deserve to have the social contract America made with us honored. I know deeply and personally how life can change in an instant, and if anyone wants to talk to me about it, I'll be glad to give them my two cents.

We are facing a galvanizing moment in America as we decide if we are to be a country that understands and lives the humanistic concept of being one's brother's keeper, or if we decide instead to adopt a ruthless, me first, sink or swim approach to dealing with our citizenry.

I pray with all my heart we choose the former.

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