Disability insurance under

the private option pays 60 percent of the employee's

salary until age 65 or until the employee returns to

work. I have seen the hassle some of my friends have gone

through trying to get disability from Social Security,

and the measly amount they get after hiring lawyers to

handle their case.

And finally, at the

employee's death, his or her family would inherit the

rest of the retirement account. Try that with Social

Security!

I recognize that [President

Franklin] Roosevelt was a nice man, but I think the

creation of the Social Security, while well intentioned,

has done a lot of damage to the fabric of our country.

Let's face it, the Social

security Fund does not exist. It consists of nothing more

than IOUs the government owes to itself. There is no

money in the fund; it is a pay as you go system.

Security will begin paying out more than it takes in, and

completely exhausted the so-called trust funds. In order

to make the payments without cutting benefits, the

trustees estimate that payroll taxes will have to rise

from the current 12.4 percent to 18.8 percent.

government decided to do away with the option of leaving

the Social Security system because they feared that more

and more counties would leave in droves.

In another paragraph, Mr.

Ramey mentions that "President Roosevelt had great

faith in the product of our founding fathers, the

Constitution and the Bill of Rights," and goes on to

say, "the latter guarantees the civil liberties of a

Democracy."

As a naturalized American

citizen, I must take issue, because this wonderful

adopted country of mine is not a democracy; it is

a constitutional republic in which the rights of the

minorities are protected from the majority. In a

democracy, majority rules.

Mr. Ramey also seems to

believe that the employer's contribution to Social

Security is not part of his/her cost to hire the

employee.

Next, Mr. Ramey states that

FDR was instrumental in the passage of Social Security

and Medicare. Wrong again. Medicare was signed into law

by [President Lyndon Johnson] July 30, 1965.

In closing, Mr. Ramey goes

into the tirade about self-centered citizens that care

little about the "disadvantaged." The answer is

no, Mr. Ramey. The people you are talking about are very

busy trying to make money in order to pay for the

outrageous tax burden that has been imposed on the

productive citizens of this country. Most of these folks

are paying about 40 to 50 percent of what they make in

taxes! It is time that we get some of our money back.

Gerard Jansen

Peachtree City

<!-------------