I just got a bogus e-mail forwarded to me from a liberal friend. It claims that our US representatives aren't interested in "fixing" social security because they themselves enjoy much a lavish retirement plan paid for <gasp>
by your tax dollars! My first reaction is that it was total bullshit. I assumed that if it were true, I certainly would have heard about it.
Okay, okay ... we all get tons of bullshit spam, what's the problem? Well, in my view, the legion of daily visitors to this site have an obligation to stop this urban myth in its tracks - before it becomes entrenched like the "NYC sewer alligator" myth most people still believe.
It only took 0.24 seconds for Google to provide me with a link debunking this myth [ http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blcongress.htm ], but it was 0.24 seconds more than my friend (and who knows how many before him on the e-mail string) took to check into this outrageous claim.
So here's my recommendation, should you get this spam, don't forward it along, but please hit reply-all and politely inform everyone that the claim is rubbish.
Text of the note, and excerpts of the debunking are below.
SOCIAL SECURITY:
(This is worth reading. It is short and to the point.)
Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions during election years. Our Senators and Congresswomen do not pay into Social Security and, of course, they do not collect from it.
You see, Social Security benefits were not suitable for persons of their rare elevation in society. They felt they should have a special plan for themselves. So, many years ago they voted in their own benefit plan.
In more recent years, no congressperson has felt the need to change it. After all, it is a great plan.
For all practical purposes their plan works like this:
When they retire, they continue to draw the same pay until they die. Except it may increase from time to time for cost of living Adjustments..
For example, Senator Byrd and Congressman White and their wives may expect to draw $7,800,000.00 (that's Seven Million, Eight-Hundred Thousand Dollars), with their wives drawing $275,000.00 during the last years of their lives.
This is calculated on an average life span for each of those two Dignitaries.
Younger Dignitaries, who retire at an early age, will receive much more during the rest of their lives.
Their cost for this excellent plan is $0.00. NADA....ZILCH....
This little perk they voted for themselves is free to them. You and I pick up the tab for this plan. The funds for this fine retirement plan come directly from the General Funds;
"OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK"
From our own Social Security Plan, which you and I pay (or have paid) into,-every payday until we retire (which amount is matched by our employer)-we can expect to get an average of $1,000 per month after retirement.
Or, in other words, we would have to collect our average of $1,000 monthly benefits for 68 years and one (1) month to equal Senator! Bill Bradley's benefits!
Social Security could be very good if only one small change were made.
That change would be to:
Jerk the Golden Fleece Retirement Plan from under the Senators and Congressmen. Put them into the Social Security plan with the rest of us then sit back.....
and watch how fast they would fix it.
If enough people receive this, maybe a seed of awareness will be planted and maybe good changes will evolve.
How many people can YOU send this to?
Better yet.....
How many people WILL you send this to?
I find it interesting that the senators listed by name (to give it a flavor of authenticity, I believe) are Democratic senators. I guess the anonymous author somehow wanted to imply that the Democrats who are opposed to Bush's plan are hypocritical, but truly, I'd think that if there were a Republican believer on The Hill, that believer would be making this "lavish" retirement plan widely known to the press.
Here is a thorough run-down of this urban legend from About.com, and its summary states:
It's true that members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives enjoy a generous government pension plan -- some say too generous -- but this email rant offers very little else in the way of accuracy.
Under a law enacted in 1983, all members of Congress participate in the Social Security system, both contributing and receiving benefits. Upon retirement, members receive either a combination of federal pension and Social Security benefits or Social Security alone, depending on when their term of service started and how they configured their individual plan.
So, if you've managed to read this far, thanks for bearing with me (on my first diary), and please do what you can to keep this urban legend from taking root. A simple and polite e-mail reply-all that gives the summary from About.com and provides a link should suffice. And if you want to go the extra mile, you could request that the forwarder send a similar message to the person he or she received it from.
