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Published: Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2012 / Updated: Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2012 06:20 PM

Social Security is not an entitlement – it’s earned

Mitt Romney unabashedly keeps misrepresenting Social Security as an entitlement to fire up the Tea Party/Republican base.

There is a new Republican Vice President nominee, Paul Ryan (Wisc.), and a new Romney-Ryan campaign message. Tax cuts (for you know who); spending cuts (the poor, vulnerable, working class and elderly take it on the chin); deficit reduction (this after Romney announced a new military spending plan that will add $2 trillion to the deficit); and entitlement reform (Republicans love to miscast Social Security as an "entitlement.") Let’s debunk this cheap Republican lie once and for all.

Social Security is an “earned benefit” not an entitlement program, because it is not a birthright. It is based on a lifetime of payroll contributions from our working. It is the workers contributions that fund the Social Security account and we draw from this account when we reach a designated age. Social Security gives older Americans and people with disabilities a better quality of life. I’m writing from experience.

Mitt Romney knows all this, but he unabashedly keeps misrepresenting Social Security as an entitlement to fire up the Tea Party/Republican base.

Ron Lowe

Nevada City, Calif.