I am almost 50 years old. i have been paying into Social Security since days after turning 14

[PETRUS]

56. How do we get policy to reflect the will of the people?

That's an excellent question.

The answer to retread's question IS nothing, and not just for the sake of argument.

Additionally, deficit reduction is a horrible and misguided undertaking. We are experiencing large deficits because of an economic downturn, not because of new, permanent spending programs or even tax cuts. Public investments are needed and deficit reduction (austerity) takes us in the wrong direction.

In your first response, you suggested that we must reduce benefits somehow - raising the retirement age, changing cost of living adjustments, and/or means testing. Why? Projected growth - even at current anemic levels - is 20 times higher than the tax increases necessary to maintain full funding for the current level of benefits over the 75 year planning period. Twenty times higher! That means we can maintain our commitments to this program and workers can still expect substantial wage growth and improvements in living standards.