Social Security misunderstood

Ryan Messmore’s column (Dec. 25) presents typical Heritage Foundation claptrap.

Messmore defines an entitlement mentality as “a sense of being owed something for nothing.” He then cites Social Security as an entitlement program. Result: a very deceitful equation. Messmore obviously does not understand Social Security and has given no real thought to an entitlement mentality.

Is Social Security an entitlement program in Messmore’s sense of the term? Hardly. Social Security is a forced savings program that is supported by the payroll tax. Excuse me, but as a retiree I have no sense of “being owed something for nothing.” I have a sense of being owed something for something!

Messmore then blames the lowering of America’s debt rating to “the dangers of runaway spending on Social Security and other entitlement programs.” Not true. Messmore forgets the unfinanced costs of the Iraq War and the Bush tax cuts. His suggestion that charity can meet basic social needs, as if Social Security were not needed to keep retirees out of poverty, is provably false.

Does a sense of entitlement morally corrupt people? Only if Messmore can show a causal connection between government entitlement programs and his sense of entitlement.

And he can’t.

Lee Freese

Pullman