The cost of Congress is staggering. Lawmakers’ annual salaries add up to $96 million. Their health, travel and security are $4.66 billion. After serving for five years, they receive full pay and benefits for life. (www.examiner.com/article/how-much-does-congressional-pay-and-benefits-cost-taxpayers)

They won’t do a budget, yet they do everything possible to reduce “government entitlements.” If Congress, however, eliminated the wage cap on Social Security and applied the tax to all income earned by the wealthiest wage earners, Social Security would be solid for the next 75 years. They won’t consider it because they view it as an additional tax.

The “entitlement” issue would go away and not enter politics again during our lifetime. It’s an easy fix, but since it also would apply to them, forget it. They think it’s better to go after the middle and lower class and make them pay for it and reduce benefits to the elderly because they’re at the end of their days anyway.

This is the attitude of our government in Washington. We could save money if we never re-elect anyone, but wait, they have the power to change the laws and can change the terms under which they receive benefits so they can easily work around that.

What makes them so special that they don’t receive the same Social Security and Medicare as the “working class”? I say “working” because they report to work every day in a suit and tie, hold down a chair and never get their hands dirty, never agree on anything, yet pass on the cost on to us. In other words, absolutely non-productive. Where is Donald Trump when we need him? My days of fearing the old USSR and China pale in comparison to today’s USA.

Stan Boynton, Winthrop