I've never complained about Social Security contributing to the deficit. Ever. I've stated numerous times here that it's the best idea the Democrats have ever had. You assume, and presume, too much and are so far off base it's laughable. It just gets under your skin that I've leaving the country to retire overseas. I was picking weeds for a buck an hour when I was 12 in the Florida Sun and have worked hard ever since. The pay and retirement we were told we would get at Express never materialized and now, with health issues that are making it tougher to keep working, I'm looking for the best situation possible with the resources I have. The Social Security payment I will get was earned, and no one invests in anything expecting to only get back what they put in it. And I have no problem with anyone in dire straits getting assistance. But don't tell me it's ok for anyone to live decades on gov't assistance, but not for me to collect the payment promised me for retirement by my country.I never said anything about collecting S. S. and living off shore. However I'm staying here and I will continue to pay into the system for as long as I can to help keep solvent a program whose future you are always lamenting about as well as the impact it has on the deficit. Just what are you going to do to besides living out of country bitching about the situation but collecting benefits many times greater than what you payed in? Contrary to your long standing belief you are not the only person paying into the system while everybody has lived their whole lives on relief. Among the people who also pay in is the rich Texas oilman's minimum wage gardener. It includes the single mother working 3 minimum wage jobs while her " breed em'and leave em" cowboy ex husband hasn't paid a dime in child support in years. Now if you were to take away EIC, Medicaid, Food Stamps, rent rebates, AFDC reduced school lunches etc. would that Texas oilman raise his gardener's wages to offset the loss of those benefits. Hell no.! Yes, there are abuses and people gaming the system and in my locale there are regular news reports about people being prosecuted for those offenses and the penalties are steep. There is absolutely no question that your contempt for people who you think are cheating is found in your unhappy memories of your childhood made much worse than they needed to be by having a mother that was too damn proud and too damn stubborn to put you and your siblings well being foremost and accept the help that was designed to make life better for the innocent and the powerless.