As long as you consider SS a welfare system, then there's little point
in a
discussion.

For many folks, SS *is* a large chunk of retirement income, if not all
of it.
Perhaps that wasn't the intent, but it's a fact.


*******************

Social Security isn't a welfare program as much as it is an insurance
program.
Using my 4-year-old nephew as an example- if his father had not paid
into social securit for 35 years he wouldn't be eligible for benefits.
Like any other insurance, you pay your preminums and then if X, Y, or Z
happens you collect benefits.

If you get too old or sick for productive employment, social security
will provide you with a subsistence lifestyle. There are certain
medical standards to meet before you can claim you are "too sick" to
work, as well as age requirements to meet before you can claim you are
"too old".. Those who want to retire in luxury, or even relative
comfort, have always needed to make financial arrangements far beyond
the scope of social security.

Pardon me if I don't trust Bush's motives in this matter. Throughout
his presidency, he has sought to dismantle the social safety net in the
US. Step one, of course, is to make a lot of noise about "faith based"
social services and propose taking the money currently funding the
social safety net and giving it to churches. If he can accomplish that,
it's a short and easy little hop to "The government shouldn't be
funding churches!" Voila- with the elimination of all welfare and
social support systems he will have freed up a walloping 12 percent of
the national budget (that can instead be diverted to defense
contractors or turned into tax cuts for the top 2-3% of wage earners).

While Bush and his cronies make a lot of noise about taking the
responsibility for social services away from the government and giving
it to a group of (approved, naturally) churches they are failing to
recognize a short sighted aspect of their plan. The poor, the disabled,
the mentally ill are in less need of "welfare" that curches and
families may be able to better provide than they are social justice-
and that *is* the business of government in a democracy.