Any time someone...

Brings up FDR and New Deal, we end up with eight million posts. So this mondo-record pace is a direct result of me asking Ryan why FDR wasn't on his top five list. Yay me.

I need someone to play devil's advocate for me, okay? Someone tell me WHAT John Q. Public gets out of this bill. What measurable and specific benefit does Johnny and Suzie reap?

Love it, hate it, what have you, the Social Security Act came about as a result of hundreds of thousands of workers losing their pensions in the Crash of '29. Again, not defending it, just pointing out that the measurable and specific result of this is three generations of Americans living with the security of knowing the money was waiting for them, regardless of the economic ups and downs.

(Personal note... Ray and Betty of Bund Grandparent fame lived off of three benefit packages. 1st was Social Security. 2nd was Ray's retirement pension from the Teamsters, which crapped the bed in the early 90s. 3rd was Ray's military disability due to the wounds he suffered in WWII, which was NOT all that much. So their primary retirement? Social Security. Their son, Richard, Titus and Jambo's father and his wife, Linda, our mother, had TWO retirement packages. 1st is Social Security. 2nd was Father's retirement package from his cable television construction career, which took massive hits in the recession of 2000, the tech bubble burst and the most recent recession of 2008. Was it Father's mishandling of his retirement? No. He had no control over the retirement fund's diversified (or lack thereof) portfolio. So their PRIMARY retirement is Social Security. They are not jet setting socialites on fixed income, but they are living and eating and paying their utilities. So in those instances Social Security did its job. So pardon my lack of criticism of the program. My personal experience is that it has worked.)

Okay? Ready for my Devil's Advocate response.