Why is Social Security been sold by Bush as in crisis...

[whistle]

...Paul Krugman has one set of ideas....

<snip>
March 11, 2005
OP-ED COLUMNIST
Slanting Social Security
By PAUL KRUGMAN

any people involved in the debate over Social Security's future worry that the 2005 trustees' report will be slanted in favor of privatization.

I don't expect to see books that are literally cooked: Stephen Goss, the agency's chief actuary, has an excellent reputation. But it's not out of the question. After all, in 2003 the chief actuary of Social Security's sister agency, which oversees Medicare, was told that he would be fired if he gave Congress accurate information about the cost of the Bush Medicare bill.

Even if the numbers aren't fabricated, however, it's a good bet that they will be presented in a way intended to make Social Security's financial outlook seem much bleaker than it really is.

Why should we expect a slanted report?

<more>
<link> http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/11/opinion/11krugman.html?th=&pagewanted=print&position=

I have another idea as to why Bush is pushing this so hard. In the four years that Bush has been spending at record deficits, he has already destroyed Social Security by using the trust fund to pay for his tax reforms for the wealthy and the war. The fund is all IOUs now. He must convince the public that social security is in crisis to avoid accountability for his own irresponsibilities. Once he has American believing that the crisis was there all along for the reasons he has stated, his own accountability will be buried and overlooked. This must not be allowed to happen! Bush must be held responsible for his own fiscal recklessness during his terms in office.

[bemildred]

1. It's very simple, why they want to do this.

They have to replace investment from foreign sources,
which is leaving the country, gradually, with money from
domestic sources. It's a patch for our failing economic
system. The 401K system was a similar patch, as was the
Social Security "Trust Fund". Like all Ponzi schemes, these
are time-limited.

[whistle]

2. Then this is what must be what is conveyed to American public

...by democrats and responsible citizens. The republicans have convinced their smug constituents that these situations are somehow the fault of a large group of deadbeat Americans other than themselves, who have been irresponsible and unreasonable in their demands and don't deserve a share in the American dream. That's why the GOP strategy of dividing the country between us and them!

It stands to reason therefore, that the democratic strategy must be to just tell the truth about what is really going on. Am I being naive?

[bemildred]

3. Good luck, Sir, I hope you succeed.

You are naive if you think the Democrats and Republicans are not
on the same page with this. What is stopping them is the fact that
it would piss too many people off if their benefits get cut, it has
not been sold well enough, but our "leaders" will keep trying.

[VirtualTruth]

4. The US Government will go Bankrupt, NOT Social Security Here is the Soluti

The US Government will go Bankrupt, NOT Social Security
Here is the Solution

Sean Lewis
February 3 2005

The US Government will go bankrupt, not Social Security. There I said it, but someone had to.

Bush is hiding the fact that his fiscal economic plan of tax cuts, tax refunds, deficit spending and pre-emptive war agenda has put the US on the verge of Bankruptcy.

The Social Security Trust Fund has a surplus of 1.8 Trillion Dollars invested in US Government Bonds earning interest. Social Security will not be issuing funds greater than it is taking in until 2018 or later. At that point Social Security should be able to begin to Redeem the 1.8 Trillion PLUS in US Government Bonds.

Does this sound insolvent to any one?

So what is the REAL issue?

The emperor has no clothes.

Bush has hidden the severity of the National Deficit and the National Debt by cooking the Government Books.

Bush has taken the Social Security Receipts we all pay every day in our paychecks and has replaced them with US Government IOU's. Understand, in and of itself there is nothing wrong with this. However, Bush has used this funds to hide the true depth of the Budget Deficit. When Bush calculates his Budget, he erroneously includes the Social Security Receipts. The Budget Surplus Bush inherited, which bought Bush the election when he promised to give it back to Americans; were the Social Security Receipts. In essence the tax cuts, and refund checks were financed by Social Security Receipts. Bush raided Social Security and gave the money disproportionately to the richest Americans, Buying the Election. In Doing this Bush Bankrupted Social Security doing a reverse Robin Hood, stealing from the poor to give to the rich. Bush replaced these funds with the US Government IOU's.

Those IOU's are representation of cash available to pay the Baby Boomers once they start retiring. When do they start retiring? In 3 years beginning 2008. The Baby Boomers will start cashing in those US Treasury Bonds or IOUs. Problem is, there is no money to pay back the IOUs.

You see the Treasury is running in the Red, we do not have the money to finance all of the Expenses of the US Government NOW! How will Bush find the funds to start paying off the Baby Boomers IOUs? By issuing more IOUs to someone else!

Think of it this way. You are a bank and depositors make monthly deposits for safe keeping. The bank however is not making enough money to pay it's bills, so it dips into the deposits and 'borrows' money with unsecured IOUs saying it will pay back the loans with interest once things turn around. Buts things do not turn around, they only get worse. To not pay the bills would bring ruin to the bank, so the bank 'borrows' even more money from the depositors! Now a vicious cycle has begun. Outwardly all is well, however one day the depositors begin to no longer make deposits, but begin to withdraw their funds with interest! Now the Bank faces not only a short fall to pay existing Bills because fewer funds are coming in, but also the amount going out has increased. The only way to make ends meet is to issue additional unsecured IOUs to individuals outside the Bank. As more people retire the greater the escalating unsecured IOUs grow. This is the house of cards Bush has built.

How has this happened?

Bush has not vetoed one single spending bill.

Bush has given tax cuts in a time history has shown taxes should be raised. We are at war, and in every instance of war in the past Presidents understood the importance of keeping the War Chest full to finance the Troops.

Believe it or not the Countries financing the American War on terrorism are the Chinese, the French, The Germans, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and many other countries that voted against the invasion of Iraq. How? They are buying the US Government Bonds that Bush is issuing to pay for the Deficit that Social Security is now financing.

Talk about hat in hand!

Bush needs to change Social Security because under the guise of reform Bush can 'borrow' funds to hide the impending financial incompetence of this Administration. If Bush does not 'reform' Social Security BEFORE 2008 the US citizens will see the Republican incompetence NAKED in it's raw ugly epochal squandering. Bush had everything a President could ask for, A strong economy, A strong low unemployment rate, strong GDP growth, A hard won Surplus. With this Bush could have paid BACK Social Security and the unfunded liability of Medicare, yet another 2008 issue that had a dirty sloppy overpriced band aide applied. Instead Bush has placed this the US on the slippery slope to financial ruin.

Bush needs to fix the real problem, The National Deficit and The National Debt. Bush needs to allow the ill advised tax cuts to sunset. If Bush does not deal with the real issue, Republicans being fiscally irresponsible, not only will Bush and the Republican Party go down in flames but so will the US dollar, the US standard of living, the US economy and the US.

OK now how do we solve this?

Social Security needs to be tweaked, but it is not broken.

For Social Security to continue paying out benefits all that needs to be done is this.

Increase the SS payroll deduction by 1/2 to 1%.

Increase the annual SS payroll deduction cutoff to $120,000.

Means test payout's to retirees.

Gradually increase the retirement age to 70.

Allow new workers entering the labor market to have the OPTION of having additional funds taken out of their payroll checks to be applied to the Private Accounts.

Investments in the Private Accounts are limited to these options:
Money Market
US Treasuries
INDU index fund
SPY index fund
QQQQ index fund
Gold/Silver/Platinum

All or any option in combination will keep SS solvent for decades to come. As it stands SS will continue for decades without and changes.

Time will tell all the Truth.

VT

Virtual Truth
Sean Lewis

[e-mail]
Founder Open Debate Forum
[e-mail]

We are Americans first. Not black or white, conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat. We are Americans first. Until this fact is understood we will be a nation divided and ineffective. We need to forget our differences and stop blaming each other for the errors of the past. We need to be non partisan about the future of this country. Our greatest enemy is from within. We have turned upon each other. . We need to change our old way of business as usual and be united for the common good. Which is, we are all Americans first.

[Rapier2]

5. notes

Sold is the key word. It's a marketing campaign and crisis was the message.

Why he want's phase out is simple. It's in the blood. SS has been anathma to Republicans since day one. No matter how bad the new plan was, and it was horrendous, proposing for instance to borrow tens of billions to fix a few billions problem, they want it dead. At any price because price means nothint. It's a matter of faith, ideology and habit.