Letter to the Editor: Social Security reform

To the Editor:

In her letter to the editor in the December 18, 2019 edition of The Standard, Ann L. Hart used a play out of the playbook from the Main Stream Media and the Democrat Party in criticizing Senator Joni Ernst’s  position on Social Security reform. She totally misrepresented the facts, took some statements out of context and resorted to prevarication.

Senator Ernst, while campaigning for the U.S. Senate, acknowledged the need for reforming Social Security and offered suggestions on how that might be done. Ms. Hart suggests that Senator Ernst only wants to discuss reforms behind closed doors so she and those dastardly Republicans can pull the wool over the eyes of the public, maybe in the same way the Democrats tried to do in the closed door impeachment hearings against President Trump. Ms. Hart is taking that comment totally out of context and making it appear that no one, except Republicans, will have any input.

Ms. Hart fails to acknowledge that the Obama administration did nothing for reforming Social Security after making that a campaign issue in 2008. Nor does she acknowledge that the main reason the Social Security Trust Fund is going broke is because it was raided by Democrat President Lyndon B. Johnson to pay for the Vietnam War.

And then Ms. Hart brings in the latest Main Stream Media/Democrat(Socialist) Party argument crying foul against “wealthy people” and promoting class envy. It appears that Ms. Hart is jumping on the band wagon for Socialism being promoted by several young women from what used to be the Democrat party.

It is certain that Social Security must be reformed.  And it appears that time is running out just as the Social Security funds are running out. It is time to discuss the reforms that must be made and to put aside such plans as the “Green New Deal” that will cost  trillions of dollars and put many people out of work.

Lowell L. Engle
Harpers Ferry