In my latest "Conservative Con of the Week" article,

[Eric J in MN]

I talk about Bush's use of fear regarding Iraq and Social Security.

http://www.moveleft.com/moveleft_essay_2005_01_16_conservative_con_of_the_week_bush_sells_fear.asp

The quagmire Bush wants to lead us into during his second-term is in Social Security.

The quagmire Bush led us into during his first-term is in Iraq.

There are parallels between Bush's Iraq fearmongering and Social Security fearmongering. Each is intended to provoke a radical response instead of a rational response.

The rational response to the situation in Iraq before the war would have been to let the inspectors continue their work. The rational response to the situation with Social Security is to raise the cap such that earnings above $87,000 are taxed for FICA.

Bush's answer is a radical response in each case.

Bush's friends are getting rich off the Iraq War, and they will get rich off his Social Security scheme if it passes Congress.

To put Bush's fearmongering on Social Security into context, view the video linked at-the-bottom-of-this-article on how the Bush Admin. hyped Iraq's non-existent weapons-of-mass destruction.

Note that at the time Colin Powell made his infamous presentation to the UN, Feb. 5, 2003, Powell's intelligence analyst on wmd, Greg Thielmann, knew the evidence was bogus ("The Man Who Knew" 60 Minutes, Feb. 4, 2004.)

The video linked below about wmd seems to have been made in 2004.

http://www.peacecandy.com/gwbush/remindus/

[papau]

1. Nice :-)

87000 is now in 2005 90000.

But I like the flow !

:-)

[Eric J in MN]

3. Have they already planned the cap level in 2006, etc.? nt

nt

[papau]

4. No - the CPI increase is calculated in Nov and the new cap announced

in the first week of Dec.

[cynthia]

2. we can't be fooled again

I remember when they started talking about Saddam Hussein being a threat and thinking that it was all a distraction from the Enron scandal.

We can't let them get away with this distraction this time. Social Security needs to be preserved, if anything raise the cap and let's get on with the real problems: bring our troops home, deal with the deficit and the lousy economy.