Plea for Social Security to be top election issue

A public official closely tied to the aging populations of Oconee and Anderson says once the latest warnings about Social Security and Medicare are absorbed, there’ll be a shudder that permeates many senior citizens of a certain age.  The board of trustees for Social Security warned that trust funds are projected to deplete one year earlier than previously predicted, and the news apparently is worse for Medicare money.  Doug Wright directs Senior Solutions in the two upstate counties, and he pleaded in an interview this morning with 101.7/WGOG for politicians of all stripes to reach an agreement on action to save Social Security, Medicare, and other related programs.  Wright insists that everyone rid themselves of the notion that Social Security is an entitlement.  “These people (beneficiaries),” Wright says, “and all of us have paid into this system and trusted that it would have been invested well and spent well.  And it has not,” he said.  Wright echoes what an email correspondent with WGOG wrote yesterday.  He said, “There is an easy fix.  Currently, people who make more than $142,000 a year in wages don’t pay Social Security tax on the amount over $142,000.  That number goes up every year but even so 16% of the population is exempt.  If the amount were raised to, say, $400,000 it would generate more than a trillion dollars in ten years and SS would be solvent until 2100.  When Social Security was started that exemption kicked in at $3,000.  Wages have risen quicker than inflation over the long haul.”  Our interview with Doug Wright of Senior Solutions can be heard on Sunday’s noon hour ‘Community Sound Off’.