Congress Should Practice on Themselves First

House leaders of both parties have recently indicated they want to take a crack at the Social Security mess by raising the retirement age.

Recent comments by both House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (Maryland Democrat), and House Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio Republican) stressed that with people living longer and in better health, the U.S. can not afford to pay benefits for as many as 30 years after retirement.

In addition to raising the retirement age to 70 for people now 50 or younger, Boehner suggested tying cost-of-living increases to the consumer price and providing benefits only to those who need them.

"If you have substantial non-Social Security income while you're retired, why are we paying you at a time when we're broke?" he said. "We just need to be honest with people." Like Boehner, Hoyer suggested making Social Security and Medicare "progressive," that is, providing benefits primarily to low-income people who need them the most. The Plan: You work hard and pay $$$ into social security for the benefit of others.

Hummmmm. Great idea. Since you are the a-holes that caused this entire mess, let's strip every perk, pension and privilege from you first before we start talking about us. This is just another plan to massively redistribute wealth. Reward the people who fail to plan for retirement, just like we reward failure through every other government giveaway and bailout. The list of what we reward with tax payer dollars includes just about every poor decision a business or person can make, including Congressional compensation. If they were paid based on performance, you might see your elected represented roadside with a sign "I will work for Food."

Members of Congress are eligible for a pension at age 62 if they have completed at least five years of service. They are eligible for a pension at age 50 if they have completed 20 years of service, or at any age after completing 25 years of service. The amount of the pension depends on years of service and the average of the highest three years of salary. By law, the starting amount of a member’s retirement annuity may not exceed 80 percent of his or her final salary.

Where in the private sector is an employee eligible for a PENSION after 5 years of work????? WHERE?????

I call B.S. The only reason for these "hard decisions" is because these morons have financially mismanaged this country. They wait until the house is engulfed in flames before they act because their self-interest in being re-elected is more important than actual governance and fiscal responsibility. Let's redistribute Congress' wealth first. Next, let's publish a list of the Top Porkers and require them to attend mandatory town hall meetings and explain to tax payers face-to-face why our country is broke.