Social Security isn’t wealth redistribution

In an Op-Ed for USA Today, Rep. Raul Grijalva suggests eliminating the earnings cap on social security payments as a way to balance systemic deficits within the system. Yet, it’s clear from his article that Mr. Grijalva neither understands what “Social Security” is, nor that what he’s proposing is simply wealth redistribution.
 
First, there is no such thing as “Social Security.” That’s just the name most people use to refer to OASDI (Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance). It’s an insurance policy:  not an entitlement, not a tax and certainly not a vehicle for social engineering and wealth redistribution. 
 
FICA payments are more accurately referred to as “premiums.”  In essence, they’re no different than the monthly payments to your automobile or health insurer: you pay up front for defined benefits in the future.
 
Individuals earning more than $106,800 per year are simply buying the most expensive insurance policy available. Removing the cap on earnings, unless you also remove the cap on benefits, is–at its core–simply making one individual pay for another person’s retirement plan. Grijalva’s plan isn’t about making people pay their “fair share,” which they already do; it’s about handing your hard-earned money to someone else in the name of socialist “equality.”
 
And while this might sound appealing to someone like Raul Grijalva, with his extensive ties to socialist individuals and organizations throughout this country, it’s most certainly not the American way. We’ve seen the failed experiments in socialism across the globe, and there’s no need to replicate their failures here at home.
 
Until the 1960’s OASDI actually showed a profit. Like any insurance company, they invested the premiums collected from American taxpayers and invested them in the market, earning a fair return. Had spendthrift politicians like Mr. Grijalva not dipped their beaks into the pot, OASDI would still be fully funded today. 
 
The way to make this program solvent again isn’t by using it as a vehicle for wealth redistribution; instead we need to repeal the laws allowing politicians to spend Social Security dollars on their latest pork barrel project, create sustainable economic growth and reduce discretionary spending to rein in our deficits.

Ruth McClung

Ruth McClung is a conservative Republican seeking election to the U.S. House of Representatives in Arizona District 7.

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