"Communism"? Give me a break. It's an insurance program. It's not "each according to his need - the checks are scaled out based on income. For once, can we have a serious debate without resorting to boogie men? You seem to be saying SSI will lead to "communist starvation". Can we just cut the crap? The SSI system has worked well for generations. It is perfectly solvent. It wasn't created out of thin air - someone didn't wake up and say, "Man, I think I create a retirement system for the elderly!" - it came about because a lot of bad things happened in the days before we had it -real things, to real people. The Republicans need to lay off the scare tactics, ala Iraqi WMDs.