Read My Lips - the blog

Episode No. 23

Yes, kiddies, it is that time again . . . time for another adventure from yesteryear. Yes, we all know you are all ready for another adventure of Rusty Rucker, and today's exciting episode is chock full of spine-tingling tales. So gather around, hush your mouths, make sure the parents are in the other room and let's get this show on the road:

Old Rusty lives way back in the boonies with a couple of hound dogs and one lazy ole mule. With nothing to do all day except whittle and listen to the radio, he gets some off-the-wall ideas about our political structure and its impact on our daily lives. Maybe you will get a chuckle out of some of the stuff he comes up with, and who knows, you might even agree with part of it.

September 2000 Updated regularly -- Totally new first of every month.

I swore I wouldn't take sides on anything political, but George Bush Jr. done rubbed me wrong when he started talking about letting us who draws Social Security invest a part of our income in the stock market. He is totally out of touch with reality. How much does he think we get?

Maybe if SSI amounted to more than just enough to keep us alive (Some live on dog food -- the dry kind) we might be inclined to make some investments like Bush and all the other millionaire Republicans, but not one out of ten of the folks surviving on Social Security knows a pig's ear about investing. We would have to rely on brokers. Now, wouldn't that be a great opportunity to lose all our fingers (and toes)?

Nah! I think we need to take what we get and invest it in beans and potatoes so we may survive another hot summer without air conditioning and a cold, cold winter with little or no heat.

"Dad-gum-it"! you scream, "What about the Democrats"? Well now, I have had some things to say about them in the past. For those what has a short memory, go to: http://camalott.com/~chili/rusty23.htm">June 2000 Gun Control
and see what I said about thet.

Truth is -- What either says in campaign promises and what they does if they gets in is two entirely different horses. If there wuz only a way to oust all politicions and bring in farmers, truck drivers, oil field workers, ranchers, housewives, school teachers, and so fourth, we could have a real Government by the People and For the People.

What do you think about this?[*]--

Our Senators and Congressmen do not pay into Social Security, and of course, they don't collect from it. The reason is that they have a special retirement plan that they voted for themselves many years ago.

For all practical purposes, it works like this: When they retire, they continue to draw the same pay, until they die, except that it may be increased from time to time, by cost of living adjustments.

For instance, former Senator Bradley, and his wife, may be expected to draw $7.9 Million, with Mrs. Bradley drawing $275,000 during the last years of her life. This is calculated on the average life span for each. This would be well and good, except that they pay nothing in on any kind of retirement, and neither does any other Senator or Congressman.

This fine retirement comes right out of the General Fund. Our tax dollars at work. While we who pay for it all, draw less than $1,000 per month on average from Social Security.

How good could Social Security really be?

A first step to finding out would be to jerk the Golden Fleece retirement out from under the Senators and Congressman, and put them in Social Security with the rest of us, and watch how fast they fix it.

No reason to live in a fantasy world. That will never happen. Wouldn't we all like to have a job where we can vote our own raises, health plan, retirement plan, while we keep our hands out for whatever BIG BUSINESS wants to slip into it.

Thanks for the ride. Y'all come back now ... Ya hear!!!

"The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons. --Ralph Waldo Emerson

*I have received this information several times in emails and have never gone through the time to actually checked it for accuracy. However, I personally suspect it is likely pretty accurate.

See all of the currently published Rusty Rucker works by clicking on this link.

Rusty Rucker posts are from previously published monthly columns of my late father that had been lost until I discovered Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

Posted by Tiger at August 11, 2003 11:12 PM