Just for the record, I won't see a dime in Social Security no matter what happens...

[senseandsensibility]

I have a defined benefits pension, and in California teachers can't "double dip," at least not in my school district. So I technically have nothing to lose here. Yet I'm still incensed. Why?

I understand that it isn't all about me. I understand that Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit. I understand that "compromising" with repugs is insane. I understand that austerity will hurt the economy and increase the deficit. I understand that cutting Social Security is morally wrong.

Why doesn't Obama get it?

[liberal_at_heart]

1. That's what I want to know. Why are they offering up Social Securtiy when it adds nothing to the

deficit?

[robinlynne]

3. and who cares about the deficit anyway? We need federal spending right now. The "deficit"

is not a real problem in this country at this moment. It is a republican talking point.

[Bay Boy]

2. Are you saying you don't/won't get SS?

And you don't pay in to SS either? How did that happen?

[StrayKat]

4. One way used to be being in certain civil servant positions.

My mother didn't pay into SS either and doesn't receive benefits. She has an alternate retirement program she paid into as did others hired before the 1980s.

[DollarBillHines]

5. In my case

I never worked for a 'paycheck'. That is, one in which taxes, FICA or SS were deducted.

[Bay Boy]

8. What did you work for?

You've got me curious?

[DollarBillHines]

10. I have, basically,....

stayed under the radar.

When I returned home from military service, I swore that not one of my dollars would ever help support the kind of horrors I had witnessed.

So I created an amorphous identity and lived my life between the road and the ditch. Today, I live quite comfortably and I am very involved in my community, but I have never paid a dollar into any kind of government program or agency.

Not one.

[Bay Boy]

12. That's rather disturbing...

...while we rant and rave here about the 1% not paying their fair share in taxes you're doing the same thing they are.

[DollarBillHines]

13. I am not one

who worries about the 1%. Nothing is going to change on that issue.

My concerns are family, friends and community because that is where I can make a difference.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

6. Teachers and, IIRC, railroad workers have their own pension system.

A friend of mine was telling me how he doesn't pay in into SS in his teaching job but has to pay in his other part time job but will never see any of that. That goes for all the jobs he's had in school and/or prior to teaching.

As I type this, I'm wondering if he would receive SSDI if he needed it? Don't know if that is the case or not.

[Cleita]

7. Why would he not get it if he's paid into it? He needs to check with the SS Administration

about that. He might be entitled to a smaller check than those with full benefits, yet it's something. You can always get them to give you an estimate of benefits at any time during your working life if you ever had FICA deducted from your paycheck. I know I did. Also, I don't think SSDI is attached to work. If it were people who were born with disabilities and never could work wouldn't be able to get it.

[former9thward]

9. Your friend is wrong.

If he has paid in for 40 quarters (total of 10 years) he will receive SS. Might not be much because of what he has paid in but he will get it.

[1-Old-Man]

11. Why do you presume that you will always be a teacher in California?

And is that the only job you have ever had in your life?