Social Security

My dad was part of what has been dubbed the so-called Greatest Generation — he grew up during the Great Depression and fought in World War II. My dad refused to ever join a union as a meat cutter. I would realize my family essentially lived paycheck to paycheck. My dad never had a union pension and was financially unable to put money into a CD or an individual retirement account. When retirement came, his sole income was a monthly Social Security check and his health care dependent upon Medicare and Medicaid.

My generation, baby boomers, faced nuclear confrontation with the Cuban missile crisis, participation in the Vietnam War, and the threat of terrorism with 9/11. We are now in the retirement phase of our lives. Many of us baby boomers refused to join a union (union rolls declined during our “working years”) so many of us don’t get a union pension. Many of lived paycheck to paycheck and couldn’t sock money away for retirement. Many of us are dependent on that monthly Social Security check and Medicare and Medicaid for our health care.

Does our nation “owe” the Greatest Generation for its service and contributions to society? Yes. If you don’t agree with that premise, you can’t deny that us baby boomers have paid into the federal entitlement programs our entire working lives, and we are owed that. It frustrates me when legislators even suggest messing around with these programs. It seems to me these people are not living paycheck to paycheck. President Joe Biden and the Democrats understand where lower-income and middle-income Americans are at — too many Republicans do not.

— Maury Neville, Chesapeake