Image from Tri Counties Regional Center

Back again to the ground in the middle. To find something else our divided nation agrees on is relativity simple if you think about what almost all people hold dear, the life of leisure and ease that comes when you retire. This life is something that is relativity looked upon as a good thing, something to strive towards, and the ability to do so today for many Americans is predicated on their ability to access social security, a program that they have been paying into for their entire lives. This social program is a key element to allowing the older, retired, generation of Americans sit back and enjoy the fruits of their labor after working for so many years before hand. The ability to retire is generally based on how much money you have saved away and your age, which is the detriment in your ability to receive social security benefits. According to The Center of Budget Policy and Priority, Social Security keeps more then 15 million senior citizens above the poverty line. Seeing elderly people struggle is something that I think most people, regardless of their political affiliation, want to avoid seeing, but that only comes from my own personal experiences.

Image by Kevin Bennett

When regarding social security, 68% of Republicans and 78% of Democrats think that there should be no cuts made to Social Security spending, according to The Pew Research Center. This is a relatively significant amount of people on both sides of the aisle that agree that the government should not cut the Social Security budget. The problem, is that by the year 2035, predictions are that the social security trust fund that millions and millions of Americans have paid into will be completely dried up.

While both parties seem to agree the spending on the program should not be cut, the issue arises when the discussion falls to a possible solution for the rapidly drying spring of monies. A 2014 Survey conducted for the National Academy of Social Insurance found 77% of respondents agree it is critical to preserve Social Security benefits for future generations, even if it means increasing Social Security taxes paid by working Americans. This view creates problems because the other 23% of people don’t want to increase their taxes to pay for a program that may very well not be there when they reach the golden years. It may be very difficult to convince those 23% of people that giving more money to the program from their pay check is a good idea, even if over 2/3 of the nation are behind the idea.

So while their is growing concern that working people now will not be able to access the program, the broad consensus across the political board is that we need to do something to keep the program in place, even if it means raising our taxes.