> SOCIAL SECURITY NOW CALLED 'FEDERAL BENEFIT PAYMENT' /ENTITLEMENT!
>
> Have you noticed, your Social Security check is now referred to as a
> "federal benefit payment"?
>
> I'll be part of the one
percent, to forward this, our government gets
> away with way too much in
all areas of our lives, while they live
> lavishly on their grossly
overpaid incomes! KEEP passing THIS AROUND
> UNTIL EVERY ONE HAS READ
IT.....
>
>
> This was sent to me, I am forwarding it
because it does touch a nerve in me.
>
>
> Remember, not
only did you contribute to Social Security but your
> employer did too.
It totaled 15% of your income before taxes. If you
> averaged only $30K
over your working life, that's close to $220,500.
>
> If you
calculate the future value of $4,500 per year (yours & your
>
employer's contribution) at a simple 5% (less than what the government
>
pays on the money that it borrows), after 49 years of working you'd
>
have $892,919.98.
>
> If you took out only 3% per year, you'd
receive $26,787.60 per year
> and it would last better than 30 years
(until you're 95 if you retire
> at age 65) and that's with no interest
paid on that final amount on
> deposit! If you bought an annuity and it
paid 4% per year, you'd have
> a lifetime income of $2,976.40 per month.
>
> Entitlement my butt, I paid cash for my social security
insurance!!!!
> Just because they borrowed the money, doesn't make my
benefits some
> kind of charity or handout!!
>
>
Congressional benefits ---- free healthcare, outrageous retirement
>
packages, 67 paid holidays, three weeks paid vacation, unlimited paid
>
sick days, now that's welfare, and they have the nerve to call my
>
social security retirement entitlements?
>
> We're "broke" and
can't help our own Seniors, Veterans, Orphans, Homeless.
>
> In
the last months we have provided aid to Haiti , Chile , and Turkey .
>
And now Pakistan .......former hideout of bin Laden. Literally,
>
BILLIONS of DOLLARS!!!
>
> Our retired seniors living on a 'fixed
income' receive no aid nor do
> they get any breaks while our government
and religious organizations
> pour Hundreds of Billions of $$$$$$'s and
Tons of Food to Foreign
> Countries!
>
> They call Social
Security and Medicare an entitlement even though most
> of us have been
paying for it all our working lives and now when it’s
> time for us to
collect, the government is running out of money. Why
> did the government
borrow from it in the first place? Imagine if the
> *GOVERNMENT* gave
'US' the same support they give to other countries.
>
> Sad isn't
it?
>
> 99% of people won't have the guts to forward this.
Free speech applies to Christians, too
ALSO IN OPINION
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Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy is in hot water with the LGBT community because he committed the cardinal sin in an age of political correctness: Thou must not speak ill of anything gays, lesbians, bisexuals or transgenders wish to do.
In an interview with the Baptist Press and later on a Christian radio program, Cathy, whose father, the philanthropist Truett Cathy, founded the company, defended marriage between a man and a woman and when asked about the company’s support of traditional marriage said: “Guilty as charged. We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit.” Cathy believes American society is rotting (and where is evidence to the contrary?) because the country has turned away from God.
That was it. Cathy did not say he would deny someone with a different view than his the right to eat in or work at any of his fast-food restaurants, which would violate the law. He did not say anything hateful about them. He simply expressed a deeply held conviction rooted in his Christian faith.
The reaction tells you everything you need to know about certain liberals who believe every sort of speech, activity and expression should be protected, except the speech, activity and expression of evangelical Christians.
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said he would try to deny Chick-fil-A’sapplication for permits to open restaurants in that city. Now that’s discrimination. Menino wants to ban Chick-fil-A in Boston, not for discriminating against customers or employees, but because of its owner’s beliefs, a threat he has since backed away from. Does Boston have “thought police” who might investigate whether other business owners already operating in the city hold similar views? I’ll bet there’s someone at Durgin-Park who holds similar views. What about a player for the Boston Red Sox? Better follow them to see if any of them go to church.
Maybe Menino would like to force business owners in the city to testify before an official panel of grand inquisitors and then deny operating licenses to anyone who believes traditional marriage should be the norm.
In Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has said, “Chick-fil-A’s values are not Chicago values.” Are Chicago values represented by the anti-Semitic firebrand Louis Farrakhan, with whom Emanuel is going to partner in hopes of reducing the number of homicides in his city? Are Farrakhan’s anti-Semitic and anti-gay sentiments somehow more palatable, more of value, than Dan Cathy’s support of marriage and family?
The Weekly Standard found a video posted on the Nation of Islam’s website of a Farrakhan speech two months ago in which he blasted President Barack Obama for endorsing same-sex marriage. Farrakhan said Obama is “the first president that sanctioned what the scriptures forbid.” He added, “Sin is sin according to the standard of God,” and “the Bible forbids it.”
That goes a lot further than Dan Cathy.
The Jim Henson Company has decided to pull its Creature Shop toys from Chick-fil-A and donate profits already made to GLAAD, the media-monitoring group that promotes the image of LGBT people. I knew Jim Henson when we both worked at the NBC-TV station in Washington in the mid-1960s. While we never discussed politics, I don’t think at the time, at least, he would have wanted his characters, which appeal to everyone, involved in a cultural and political battle.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Sen. Rick Santorum, both also former presidential candidates, have called for a show of support for Cathy. They want people to eat at Chick-fil-A restaurants on Aug. 1.
This is more than an economic battle. It is a First Amendment issue. Freedom of speech is guaranteed by the Constitution. Dan Cathy has a right to his opinion, so does Farrakhan, so do we all.
The real “war” in this country is not only against the supposed civil right of nontraditional marriage. It is a war against conservative Christians and a denial of the same rights the LGBT community claims for itself. Free speech is an American value. We shouldn’t settle for anything less.
Cal Thomas writes for Tribune Media Services.