Maybe I agree with 45?

Well, if I am not going to see it, maybe I am okay with no longer paying it.

US President Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders recently to provide temporary relief to Americans who are dealing with the economic-impact felt during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. One of those orders was to instructs employers to defer certain payroll taxes for the rest of the year for people who earn less than $100,000 annually. On August 8, President Trump said he intended “terminate the tax” referring to Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes.

“It is a step that would – if taken in isolation – remove nearly 90-percent of funding for Social Security benefits, and this likely pose a threat to the continued existence of those programs,” Snopes.com, a fact-checking website claims.

“Trump said during a press conference earlier this month that, if re-elected, he would “terminate the payroll tax, which raised $1.24 trillion last year and funds Social Security benefits” Fox News in Burlington, VA., reported on Tuesday.

On Monday of this week, Stephen C. Goss, Chief Actuary who reports directly to the Commissioner of Social Security, said “If this hypothetical legislation were enacted, with no alternative source of revenue to replace the elimination of payroll taxes on earned income paid on January 1, 2021, and thereafter, we estimate that DI Trust Fund asset reserves would become permanently depleted in about the middle of the calendar year 2021, with no ability to pay DI benefits thereafter. We estimate that Old-Age & Survivors Insurance Trust Fund (OASI) reserves would become permanently depleted by the middle of the calendar year 2023, with no ability to pay OASI benefits thereafter.”

Now, if you know me, you know I don’t like much of what President Trump has done in his nearly four years of office (I do appreciate he has not taken our military into any new wars while also pulling back troops in Afghanistan and I like how he has dealt with Chinese firm Huawei) but if I am never going to see any of the Social Security I have paid into over the last 30 years of my life, maybe I have found one more thing I agree with 45 on.

I hate to think of what that would do to the senior citizens both in my family and community, but if 2020 has taught me anything, it is that the world is certainly dog-eat-dog. I pray for the many this may affect, but I have bills to pay too. Selah, we will see what happens.