Upon coming home from work tonight, I found an interesting little gem in my mailbox. "Your Social Security Statement" from the Social Security Administration. Hmm, I thought... I've never seen one of these before.

It's a four-page document with sections such as "What Social Security Means to You", "Your Estimated Benefits", "Help Us Keep Your Earnings Record Accurate", and "Some Facts About Social Security". It tells me that it was "Prepared especially for [me]" and tells me what my taxed Social Security Earnings were for the past six years, which is as long as I have paid into the system. It also tells me how much I would get if I were to become disabled right now, and how much my spouse or children would get if I died this year (if I had a spouse or children). Apparently I haven't worked long enough to qualify for retirement benefits, so I don't know how much I will get when I retire.

So what I want to know is this - did everyone get one of these? Do these get sent out every year? I have never gotten one before, as far as I can remember, and as I mentioned above I have paid into social security since 1999. I want to know: have any of you received one of these documents?

Since you are my closest bestest friends, I will let you in on a little secret: I am freaking tired of hearing people talk about how "government should be run like a business." Complaining about Amtrak, complaining about the post office, privatize this, privatize that, business business blah blah blah.

Does anyone stop to think what it means to run government like a business?

First we should probably decide why we have government in the first place. Anyone have an idea? I do: The purpose of government is to correct for market failure. Repeat that line a couple of times, will you? You'll need it later. Trust me.

Okay. So that's government-- what's a business? You know this one right away: a business sells goods and services in an attempt to make a profit.

Now it's time for a little simple arithmetic. What do you get when you add business to government?

Eastside Republican Reichert to host "Forum" tonight

The Seattle Times reports today:

U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Auburn, will host a Social Security forum tonight for 350 constituents.

The forum, moderated by James Vesely, The Seattle Times' editorial page editor, will feature three panelists: Rob Nichols, assistant secretary for public affairs at the U.S. Treasury Department and previously an aide to former Reichert's predecessor, Republican Jennifer Dunn; Paul Guppy, research director at the Washington Policy Center, a Seattle think tank; and Sally Canfield, assistant to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.

In case you haven't heard, these "forums" have been widely helpful in stopping the President's Privitization Plan cold in its tracks.

Any Eastsiders who are free should go and speak out against partial or full privitzation of Social Security!

The GAO (Government Accounting Office), or the "Gods of Accounting" as I refer to them as, have come out and said it as plain as plain can be:

There is no Social Security Crisis!

David M. Walker, who heads the nonpartisan GAO said that there is no immediate crisis, but there are long term problems which should be solved sooner than later.

Walker also stated that Bush's privatization plan was "complete crap and will only worsen the financial situation for Social Security. Only a complete moron who wants to bankrupt the government, turn the United States into a third world country, and eliminate the "Security" from Social Security would be in favor of privatization. I mean, come on. This guy used to do blow! You know, "Charlie"... "Nose Candy"... "Columbian White". We're gonna let him dictate how to set up a security net for the elderly?"

I blame USA Today and Newsweek. Why bother READING an entire article when them pretty pictures tell you the whole story.

Why isn't the New York Times just pictures anyways? "All the news that's fit to print"? What about "All the pictures that are fit to be looked at briefly while I'm answering my morning email and browsing Hipinion for the latest update on who prank called Seth Green when Paris Hilton's Blackberry was hacked"?

Anways..

Social Security. No matter WHAT old George and the Reds say, there is no crisis. However, there are going to be problems in the future and if, for a change, politicans want to look 20 years in the future instead of 20 minutes in the past, I'm down for it.

So, how can we solve Social Security's long term problems in a progressive way? The Washington Post has a neat-o infographic Alternative Plans for Social Security: How They Stack Up which gives a little bit of info about some other ways we can fix the system.