The good parts of being ignored

All during the Republican Primary, Ron Paul supports, including yours truly, loved to rant and rage about how little media coverage Ron Paul was getting, despite is nice string of 2nd and 3rd place finishes in the primaries.  Heck, even Jon Stewart got in on the act, which made it Officially Cool. 

Earlier this week though, Dr. Paul kind of flew on the under the radar on an admission that WOULD have gotten more play if it was something Obama or Romney had said when he admitted that he was collecting Social Security. 

I'm not gonna lie...hearing that brings me down a bit.  Now...as most of the articles about this story/non-story have pointed out, Dr. Paul has never wanted to flat eliminate social security all at once...he wants to give younger folks the option to opt out of the system and let it fade away, which is kind of what my opinion is.  You can't tell folks in their 60's/50's/late-40's, who have been counting on SS as part of their retirement, that poof...it's gone.  You can tell folks like me though.  As a 37-year old, when I look into the future, I have zero faith that I am going to be able to count on have $1200+ a month of social security coming in to help me out...just not gonna happen. 

To me, this is maybe less about Dr. Ron Paul, Government Spending Pundit collecting social security checks, than it is Ron Paul, 12-term Congressman collecting Social Security. 

The question really is, should it bother me at all?  I don't have the tax returns in front of me, but I'm willing to guess that Dr. Paul, just based off his Congressional Income, should be living in the 'Very Comfortable-Well Off' range.  By no means do I think he is in the Romney, or even Obama net-worth range, but between his FERS Pension, and TSP if he payed into it...he should be doing okay.  Add into that the fact that I'm sure, no matter how things play out at the Republican Convention, that he will surely continue to earn some consulting/appearance fees going forward.  Heck...I'm willing to be his income increases now that he is done with Congress...

What it all adds up to is that question is much more of a 'should you be doing this' than 'can you be doing this'.  It's clear that Ron Paul, 12-term Congressman can do this, but should have Dr. Ron Paul, Government Spending Pundit have done this.  Obviously, I don't think he should have.  I think maybe he should be setting that example.  It could be that I'm wrong about his financial situation.  Maybe he has the tax paperwork to show that he is donating 110% of his social security income to charity...

Or, maybe I added a little bit too much Commie Bastard Creamer to my coffee this morning, and have this crazy idea that we should add some kind of 'maximum income/worth' cap to social security.  I have a hard time believing that even that socialist Great Politician LBJ expected 12-term Congressmen to be collecting social security in his Great Society...so maybe the jokes on him in the end. 

Or of course, you could just abolish the whole system, before it collapses on it's own, taking the whole Federal Government with it.