Jason Thigpen is running for Congress in eastern North Carolina (the Outer Banks, most of the coastal plain, from the outskirts of New Bern, down the 17 to Jacksonville and on past Camp Lejeune into Wilmington. The district has been trending Republican in recent years but Democrats have a 12% voter registration edge and Jason is just the kind of guy who can appeal across the partisan divide without abandoning his progressive values. He penned this guest post. Please give it a read and see if you'd like to contribute to his grassroots campaign here.Carpetbaggers Want Entitlement ReformBy: Jason ThigpenFor too long politicians have mislabeled our savings, retirement, and healthcare programs as entitlements, referring to Social Security and Medicare as if you haven’t paid for them. While it never ceases to amaze me how sleazy politicians and their pundits can be, they have somehow managed to convince most of America that entitlement is a bad word. This is a misguided effort in hopes of leading people to believe what they've already paid for, isn't actually theirs. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, an entitlement is "a right to benefits specified especially by law or contract."So let’s get something straight – they actually want us, being the middle and working class, to get behind them chanting, "We need to cut all this excessive entitlement spending for Social Security and Medicare… yeah! Too much deficit spending…yeah! Wait, hold on a second…I paid into those programs and will one day rely on them." That’s like being forced to make payments on a house you’ll never own and may never live in. Would you pay $60,000 for a car regularly sold for $20,000? If so, I’ve got the car for you. It may sound humorous but this is the reality of how these career politicians have become multi-millionaires, with an average net worth of over $6 Million each and will never rely on or need Social Security or Medicare anyway. Neighbors representing neighbors, right? In order to receive the full benefits of what you paid into Social Security you have to live to be nearly 120 years old, never mind the fact you're paying taxes on an interest-free loan you made to the government. According to professor of Economics Dr. Allen Smith, who’s been reporting on Social Security for years says in one of his reports titled I: It’s Time to Tap the Empty Social Security Trust Fund:
“Hasn’t Social Security been receiving surplus revenue ever since the 1983 payroll tax hike? Isn’t there supposed to be approximately $2.5 trillion in the Social Security trust fund? The answer to both questions is yes. But there is a problem. Every dollar of that surplus Social Security revenue has already been spent by the government.”
Rather than admitting thievery, these carpetbaggers are suggesting Social Security and Medicare are running out of money because people aren’t working or paying in to the programs. But when have they pushed for an infrastructure or jobs bill benefiting Americans first, rather than big business? In my opinion, if any of these so-called Representatives truly cared about Social Security and Medicare, much less their constituents lives’, they’d actually support American businesses who hire Americans here in America.I find it personally insulting to continue hearing these carpetbaggers talk about the people who built this great nation like they are some kind of charity case walking around with their hands out. Any politician or deficit hawk trying to justify making cuts to Social Security or Medicare is choosing to take away the paid benefits of women, children, and the elderly. Need we be reminded that it was the elderly who built this country? They are not a burden! They are our parents and grandparents, they are our childhood heroes, they are our veterans who fought to defend this country, and they should not be politicized nor forgotten!Next time one of these carpet bagging career politicians has the audacity to talk about taking money from our seniors-- you tell him not until Wall Street is reformed and we get back the savings they gambled away, not until we get an infrastructure bill, not until we can have open and honest elections without corporations having unlimited access to buy candidates, not until we can send a damn email with it being collected by the NSA, not until we have the right to vote unencumbered and fueled by political ignorance and hate, not until we get a Supreme Court that fully accepts its role as the third branch of our government without its decisions being made by corrupt politicians at the expense of our future generations.