The House Select Committee for Investigating the Jan 6, Attack on America’s Capitol begins public hearings. We need to ask why.
Are the only concerns the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution of the United States? Or is it to use media to attack or undermine political opponents?
It is possible for law infractions to be investigated without a carnival platform intended to mobilize media attention and national attention.
The public material of this committee already screams of motivations other that seeking truth.
The committee has already announced on its website that the Jan. 6 incident was “one of the darkest days of our democracy.”
Really? Against a civil war where some three-quarters of a million Americans were killed, fighting over what American freedom is about, one incident of a few hours, where law enforcement finally prevailed, was one of our “darkest days”?
There are only 24 hours in each day. If you spend too much time on one subject, you may not be paying attention to other issues.
If these members of Congress really cared about our principles of freedom and democracy, they wouldn’t be ignoring every day other pressing matters in which the freedom of American citizens is blatantly violated.
Take, for instance, Jan. 6’s investigation, which monopolizes media attention. However, on June 3, the Trustees of Medicare and Social Security published their annual report.
Both systems are in financial ruin and bankrupt.
In 2021, Medicare had a cash shortfall of $409 billion. Projection is that Social Security will be out of adequate cash flow to meet obligations to retirees by 2035—just 13 years from now.
According to the Trustees, there is not enough money in Social Security to cover 80% of the benefits in 2035. In order to generate enough funds to meet these obligations, the 12.4% payroll tax would need to be raised by 26%.
This means that every American working age 55 and under who wants to receive Social Security benefits at age 65 is paying a payroll tax into an unsustainable system that can’t provide the promised benefits.
Imagine a private insurance company writing to policyholders and promising to pay 80% of the promised payments in 13 years.
The lawsuits would fly.
Let’s forget about the fiscal situation of the system for a minute and whether it is even worth saving this program. What about freedom? How do our members of Congress want us believe that they care so deeply about it?
Imagine a 21-year-old citizen entering the workforce for the first time with a new degree. 12.4% of their salary is immediately deducted into a system that they have voluntarily entered, but which does not have sufficient funds to pay promised benefits.
Shouldn’t this new young worker be able to say, “No, thank you, I don’t want to participate”?
Even if the system were not broken, and benefits could be met, in our free country, shouldn’t everyone be free to manage their own retirement?
The Committee to Unleash Prosperity estimates that Social Security’s average return over the past 40 years was 1%. Over the same period, the average return on stocks was 6.6%.
This new worker could, according to the Committee to Unleash Prosperity calculations, have an annual income at retirement of $55,143 if they had the median national income and could invest 10% of that income in a diversified bond and stock portfolio over 40 years instead of paying the payroll taxes.
The Select Committee members, it’s okay. Let’s stop pretending we care about American freedom. Let’s get down to the serious issues facing American citizens today.
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