When I was 16, I started my first part-time job at a bakery. I eventually retired, at age 66. During every one of the 50 years between, both my employers and I contributed payments to the Social Security Trust Fund.
Now that I am able to receive a modest return on these contributions, I suddenly find myself labeled as part of Mitt Romney's 47 percent who are being criticized for expecting "free stuff."
Such simplistic labeling is now being used by the right wing to justify cuts in Social Security and Medicare as part of the debate on the federal deficit and the "fiscal cliff."
Marilyn Pinsky, in her Dec. 11 commentary "Enhance retirement security," is correct when she notes that these programs are much too important to be "bargaining chips in a year-end political deal."
Back in 1983, then-Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan led a bipartisan effort that extended the life of the Social Security system by more than 30 years. That solution took time and required political cooperation, open dialogue, careful analysis and give-and-take by both sides. Similar efforts will be required to find solutions to the challenges that now face Social Security and Medicare.
The "fiscal cliff" debate is not the setting for such a dialogue.
James Flanigan
Wynantskill