Of course we are entitled to our entitlements

It's no wonder that the 'publicans have made the word entitlement into a bad word. We are supposedly not entitled to healthcare. We are not entitled to social security. We are not entitled to any kind of welfare. We are all supposed to go quietly, sort of like old soldiers, just fade away.

I've got news. The social services are something we all paid for. And the down-and-out, the poor, aren't they paying for their inability every day with their lives?

Most of us elderly have worked, and we paid in, and still do, and we didn't enrich ourselves with ill-gotten gains on Wall Street. We were not clever enough to cheat our way to the top. We are entitled. We deserve what we are getting.

As a matter of fact some of our savings were taken from us by those who played with our savings. We were entitled to that money, too.

To make up for those losses, I suggest that the wealthy pay with their taxes into our Social Security so that we will be able to afford medicines and food and housing when we can't work any longer. As it is right now, many at my age can't make ends meet. Many of them made a living wage when they paid into the pot, and that pot has been getting smaller and smaller through no fault of their own.

The elderly should receive a substantial increase in their monthly pay. It would help them, and it would help the economy, and it would probably greatly enhance the profits of pharmaceutical companies.