Mastodawn

Edward Joy Mar 30, 2025

I paid into social security my entire working life. I'm now receiving modest monthly benefits (on which, by the way, I pay taxes).
For the Republicans to threaten this and weaken or cripple #socialsecurity is an egregious assault on all Americans, including the 73 million now receiving benefits.

f*cking b*tch club Mar 30, 2025

@petergleick I think most people also don’t realize that Medicare isn’t free, we pay premiums from our Social Security benefits.

Trout Mask Replicant Mar 30, 2025

@grammasaurus @petergleick We're paying for Medicare twice, since we also paid Medicare tax as well as Social Security tax when we were working. The only thing I can say is it's cheaper than what I paid for health insurance when I was working. But, we paid for it.

SaanichGuy 🇨🇦🇨🇦Mar 30, 2025

@zimmatore @grammasaurus @petergleick
Frankly you have a for profit health care system. That is really stupid
Can’t afford to take care of US citizens or veterans but your VP wants to spend more money on the military before sending them off to war

Trout Mask Replicant Mar 30, 2025

@SaanichGuy @grammasaurus @petergleick It's unbelievably stupid. Maybe Canada could annex New England?

f*cking b*tch club Mar 30, 2025

@zimmatore @petergleick Tis true. And that’s good framing that you’d THINK our politicians would emphasize….but…..

🤷‍♀️

skry Mar 30, 2025

@petergleick It's so scary.

GFIdk Mar 30, 2025

@petergleick All while refusing to raise taxes on those least likely to be hurt by it. #Despicable

yuhasz01 Mar 30, 2025

The social security tax we paid into the SS Trust Fund (separate from Government budget process) was an investment in ourselves for retirement. A social and legal contract between wager earners and the Federal government.

Not a gift or subject to political bullshit. SS benefits are not part of regular government expenditures,ie, it is self-financing.

samiamsam Mar 30, 2025

@yuhasz01 @petergleick

medicaid medicare and social security are self funded and have nothing to do with the federal budget

we all pay in with payroll deductions and employer matches

eta: THAT MONEY IS OUR MONEY

derptron Mar 30, 2025

@yuhasz01 @petergleick Thus the entitlement.

We are legitimately entitled to that money.

You can log into the SS site and get a printout of what you are owed. I grabbed one for my records. I should probably ask for a transcript if that's possible. If and when we ever recover from this, it may help in getting the money back. Who knows.

Pittthewelder Mar 30, 2025

@petergleick America is being asset stripped by the maga politicians and the billionaires, get out while you can! There are parts of the world where intelligence is still an asset and the cost of living is reasonable.

Toot Ωncommon - SHUT 🇺🇸 DOWN Mar 30, 2025

@petergleick Thanks, Ronny, for making social security income taxable.

Hexpat Mar 30, 2025

@petergleick but they don’t care

ZEDtheRED Mar 30, 2025

@petergleick Amen. I'm 62 and feeling like I'd best start looking for work , after decades of being on disability. Who's going to hire me though? That, or become a pirate

Bibliolater 📚 📜 🖋Mar 30, 2025

@petergleick I wonder how many of the 73 million who receive benefits voted for the political party orchestrating the cuts?

AlexanderMars Mar 30, 2025

@petergleick Raising prices on basic neccessities with tarriffs. Take away SS, Medicare and Veterans benefits. Repeal child labour laws to funnel youths into low wage traps, and away from higher education. Eliminating contraception and abortion access. Rounding up the undocumented and dumping them into privately run detention centers. Cutting subsidies to small farms. Framing anything they don't agree with as terrorism. Criminalising speech they disagree with.

They want everyone desperate.

Sunflower Björnskalle 🌻Mar 30, 2025

@petergleick It's literally the equivalent of the villagers pushing elders off cliffs like they did back in the day.

McCrankyface Mar 30, 2025

@petergleick I've been paying into social security since 1987. If they kill it in the next few years I will be furious. It is an entitlement meaning I am entitled to it because I paid for it.

Nonya Bidniss Mar 30, 2025

@petergleick After the Musk rats break the Social Security system a lot of ignorant Trump voters are going to be surprised when their parents have to move in with them or become homeless. I guess then they can decide if the racism, misogyny, oligarchy, and Putin-fawning was worth it.

Miles Offit... 🇨🇦🇪🇺🇺🇦Mar 30, 2025

@Nonya_Bidniss @petergleick I think the reason this won't help the nation in the medium/long term is that those voters will never make the connection between those things, and will always be available for digital grievance farming 2.0, 3.0, etc.

Nonya Bidniss Mar 30, 2025

@dcdeejay And the assumption is we will have lawful elections in the future and not some mock process. If we do, even if most of the Trump voters stay in the cult, many of those who didn't bother to vote may get energized and swing the balance in favor of whoever challenges Trump/Trumpist candidate next time. Inevitably, some number of people WILL learn a lesson. @petergleick

Miles Offit... 🇨🇦🇪🇺🇺🇦Mar 30, 2025

@Nonya_Bidniss @petergleick Maybe, and I hope you're right. But I suspect one of the things the enemies of democracy plan to do with the theft of all that personal information & seizing control of payment systems is to ensure that their people are spared the worst of the harm, kept onside via microtargeting, and therefore won't abandon them in the numbers required for change.

Democracy Dies in Dumbass Mar 30, 2025

@petergleick how many of those 73 million voted for exactly this?

At this point my retirement plan may just involve me robbing a bank and living out my life in a federal prison.

derptron Mar 30, 2025

@petergleick I'm owed 65k. I am forced to pay into it 10k every year currently and that's all my investment has gotten so far (35 years working). If I wait until I'm 80 I **might** be able to feed myself on it.

These people are just completely detached from what it means to live a normal life. They've never even seen such a person except in passing on the street, when it's actually really easy to see everyone as just terrible, annoying, rude, and small creatures that absolutely disgust you.

Patricia Kayden Mar 30, 2025

@petergleick Facts. It’s our money being given back to us. We’re entitled to it. Republicans want to make it seem like a privilege

Nick Silkey 📻 N5ILK 🪓🪵 🪣💧Mar 30, 2025

@petergleick wait until they justify taking more of our treasure when the vault is mostly empty of gold bars. The hubris. We got this together, y'all. 💃✌️💙