Last year, I
retired after several years of seriously planning for it. We had help from an
advisor, and we worked with a legal and financial framework that had
essentially been in place for the last 15 years.
Then, late last
fall, Congress passed and President Obama signed the compromise budget bill,
which was considered a great step forward in intra-governmental relations.
Embedded in the bill, and no one will admit who did it or even if congressional
leaders were aware of it, was a provision that changed some Social Security
provisions. It was a change desired by the Obama Administration for years. What
it effectively did was save the government $11 billion annually in Social
Security costs.
Guess who is
helping to pay for that? People like me. It’s coming out of the hide of the
middle class. It was one of the assumptions of our retirement planning. And now
it’s gone, with no one wanting to own up who did it.
Guess who isn’t
paying for it? The Congress who passed it, the President who wanted it, and the
congressional staff people who slipped it into the legislation. They’re not
covered by Social Security. They can make policy decisions without any thought
of the impact on themselves, because there isn’t any (unless their constituents
get riled enough to evict them from office).
They are what
columnist and author Peggy Noonan calls the “protected class.” My wife and I are members of the unprotected class, although
our saving and spending habits over the course of our marriage probably make us
more protected than many. Our financial planner had to do some scrambling for
us and their other clients, because this hit with a wallop and it hit suddenly.
This reminds me
of my father. He had more experiences than you might imagine of dealing with
unexpected changes in laws. He was a small businessman who often found himself
operating on the basis of negative cash flow, which you can do for a time but
ultimately not sustain. Federal, state, and local tax laws changed constantly.
Adding insult to injury was the constant harassment by local police in New
Orleans looking for “considerations” so he could avoid having his delivery
truck constantly ticketed.
A member of the
World War II generation, he was often bewildered by what passed for political
wisdom. He voted Democratic in state and local elections (there was no real
Republican Party in Louisiana until the late 1970s and early 1980s) and
Republican in national elections. He was conservative. He believed in law and
order. He didn’t trust the national Democrats. He liked Richard Nixon (until
Watergate) and he loved Spiro Agnew (until he was indicted). He particularly
liked Agnew because the Vice President would publicly say things – like against
the news media – that outraged the media, liberals, and progressives. And he
voted for Ronald Reagan twice.
My father
struggled in business as he watched big corporations and big banks get benefit
after benefit from the federal government, including from some of the very same
people he had supported. He watched privileges and special considerations be
conferred upon people whom he believed didn’t deserve them. And he would have
understood the concern many people have about illegal immigrants – and he would
have seen them as ways for big corporations (and big agriculture) to manage
labor costs.
If he were still
alive today, my father would be supporting Donald Trump.
And my father
and I, who tended to vote for generally the same national candidates, would
have parted political ways.
Of the remaining
candidates in the race, the one who speaks to my heart is Ben Carson.
I have friends
on Facebook who say that you can’t be a true Christian and vote for Donald
Trump. I understand their anxiety, but I don’t place my hope in political candidates,
or place my hope against them. If Trump wins the Republican nomination, and
Hilary Clinton the Democratic nomination, I will be completely perplexed on how
to vote.
But my faith
remains intact, regardless of who runs, regardless of who wins. Nothing else in
this life is certain.
Top photograph by Peter Griffin, and lower
photograph by Kai Stachowiak, both via Public
Domain Pictures (second photo here). Used with permission.
