This may sound like a baby crying, but I want my entitlements!

I’m pretty sure I have been paying into social security for my entire working life. I started a paper route when I was 13 years old and expect to work until I drop. I have trickled money into this forced savings account for more than 50 years and some of these bastards in Congress want to keep it because they say we can’t afford it and that we don’t deserve it.

We can afford a $5 billion wall and a multi-trillion-dollar deficit for tax cuts for the 1 percent but not my little check, which is my money to begin with? I want it back with interest! That little check may be the difference between my total collapse and having a roof (with wheels) over my head. I suspect there are others living paycheck to paycheck that are desperately afraid to lose their entitlements. Or is it just me?

The word entitlement makes my skin crawl, especially when it rolls off the tongues of the same old devils that are running the show and the budget.

Entitled Republican Paul Ryan, supporter of huge deficit including the latest entitlement benefit program for the wealthy at the expense of the working class (tax reform) is an expert in this field.

“Each budget reflects our priorities, reflects our principles, reflects our vision. We believe in balancing the budget. We believe in getting government to live within its means. We believe in pro-growth economic policies, energy exploration, fixing our entitlements before they go bankrupt,” said Ryan, who until a few weeks ago was Speaker of the House.

Wikipedia says that The United States’ federal budget for fiscal year 2018, which ran from Oct. 1, 2017 to Sept. 30, 2018, was named “America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again.” It was the first budget proposed by newly-elected President Donald Trump, submitted to the 115th Congress on March 16, 2017.

Balance, you ask? Let’s do the numbers:

Total expenditures: $4.094 trillion (requested).

Total revenue: $3.654 trillion (estimated).

Deficit: $440 billion (requested), $779 billion (actual). For once they got more than they asked for.

We get what we deserve and even though Ryan is retired he sees his biggest success as the latest tax deal, which is heaping debt upon us, our children and, you guessed it, our children’s children. The failing New York Times reports that the “Federal budget deficit [is] projected to soar to over $1 trillion in 2020. The new Congressional Budget Office analysis, which includes the cost of the Republican tax cuts, projects the national debt to reach a level economists say could court a crisis.” Fake news.

For perspective, Ryan’s net worth in 2016 was around $6 million. He stands to receive taxpayer-funded pension checks from the government of $85,000 per year starting in 2020. He’s entitled to it. Let’s fix that entitlement program first.

Is it just me or are entitled, big, wealthy mass manipulators the ones saying that we do not deserve our investments back? Working class stiffs that will need their Social Security and healthcare are often the ones falling for the charms of our most well-appointed snake oil salesmen.

So, as Americans, what are we entitled to?

Freedom of speech? Enemies of the people.

Guns? Yes, guns. Unlimited entitlement.

Open spaces, National Monuments and parks? Shrink them and pave them over. Drill, baby drill.

Nuclear weapons? The most and best. New ones.

Jobs? Yes. Low-paying, part-time jobs with no benefits or entitlements.

Healthcare? We must pay the guys in the suits at the insurance companies, then no, not really.

Truth? It’s inconvenient at best, so no. It starts at the top, where truth and honesty are virtually absent. The truth is a Chinese hoax.

A wall on the southern border? Apparently we need that more than entitlement protection. How about we balance the budget first?

Balanced budgets? No longer important when we are making America great again.

A healthy environment? They have us arguing when we should be responding to the challenges.

Where did our entitlements come from? Social Security was instituted in 1935 after greed felled the economy and the Great Depression followed. The program has kept a lot of fine people above water for generations. It works for those that need it.

If you work for the man, examine your paycheck deductions carefully and you will see that you are paying for these programs that you probably will need if you are lucky enough to get old. The last thing you should have to worry about after a lifetime of buying in is to be shut out in your hour of need by experts who are drowning in their own entitlements.

I’m certain that wealthy manipulators will take issue with this column and provide a wise rebuttal. But wealth does not make someone an expert at much, not like suffering and hard work.

Steve Skinner hopes we can come together and do right. Reach him at nigel@sopris.net.