Posted on 03/03/2005 10:28:30 AM PST by Wuli
Senator Grassley:
Please resign. Please ask your party to ask your state to hold a special election for your immediate replacement.
The problem with Social Security is not a fictitious need to look like your party is being nice to Democrats. The problem with Social Security is not the need for another temporary fix, like congress has used at some point in every decade of Social Security's existence - to raise the Social Security taxes on the American people (look at the record).
The problem with Social Security is over six decades of spineless people in Washington, D.C. that don't have the honesty or guts to tell the American people the truth - "The Contract Is Broken" ©TomPainter. A fictitious trust fund that has never contained anything other than an accounting of the sums that the American people, operating through their U.S. Treasury, owe to themselves as debt to themselves for Social Security, is not a trust fund. It is a financial and political pyramid scheme.
If any corporation dared attempt to tell their employees that their pension fund assets were nothing more than debt that the company owed itself for money it had already spent, you'd been one of the first to rise up in the Senate chamber and demand an investigation. Yet, for Social Security, you simply want to keep the myth going. You should be investigated.
The problem with Social Security is that as soon as people in congress like you expect Social Security to start using its fictitious assets, you want to be sure Americans are taxed enough to avoid you having to admit the reality of the "trust fund". That reality is that from the first moment Social Security walks over to the Treasury with IOUs it needs to redeem to pay benefits - sometime between 2013 and 2018 - the Treasury will not have any money to give to Social Security for those IOUs, unless taxes are raised. You want a "fix" that avoids the lie about the non-existent savings in the non-existent trust fund.
Private accounts for the younger generations are needed, essential and mandatory to correct the philosophical error that Social Security perpetuates. Private accounts for younger generations are needed so that they will have a personal stake in real assets that belong to them; assets that are not available for anyone's political objectives. Private accounts are needed to move the retirement system, gradually over time, to one based on true savings and assets, and not the political slush fund that Social Security is now.
Current recipients and workers who have been in the system most of their working lives deserve some form of protection of some level of current expected benefits. But, whatever those protections need to be, they cannot detract for the greater need for a better system for the future.
Any retirement system that has only been fixed by increasing taxes on the American people is a system that is flawed at its heart. The so-called surplus in the "trust fund" has never paid a single benefit, and never can pay a single benefit to anyone. How can it, it is debt we owe ourselves and to use it, we must pay for it all over again.
Any "trust fund" surplus at any time in the history of Social Security has never been anything more than a political slush fund, whereby congress avoids having to ask the people if it can increase their debt or their taxes. Congress spends any excess raised by FICA taxes, adds that expense to debt we owe ourselves and refers to the accounting of that debt as "assets". It is a joke.
Since you are one who refuses to step forward and declare the Social Security emperor naked, as any child of the accounting profession can see, then please resign, so that this congress and your party can seek a person who has the spine to take on the difficult issues of the day. It is not important whether or not that task pleases the Democrats. Let your party have someone who is not afraid to speak the truth to your constituents, and your peers in Congress.
©Tom Painter
bump
btt
Of the two Senators we (Iowa) send to DC, I vote to keep Chuck and chuck the Dung Heap.
I like this Tom Painter fellow. Who is he?
BTW, I can't place Tom Painter, do you have a link?
Not to mention stop pulling money out of our pockets to fund rain forests in the middle of Iowa. He's one of few remaining worthless Republicans elected in the 60's and 70's. The go along to get along type.
P.S. Take the other ninety nine worthless bloviators with you.
How about tossing them both?
You can find some ©TomPainter stuff here
http://www.oped.com/GuestEdit.html
and some here
http://www.suburbanstreet.com/editorial.html
Supported RINO Ganske over Salier in Senate Primary
Supported Specter for Judiciary Chair
Sponsored the prescription drug bill
Sold us out on the tax cuts
Backed off SS reform
Supports every huge spending increase that comes down the pike
This guy has really wandered off the reservation as of late and should have been put out to pasture in the last election. I voted Libertarian instead of voting for Grassley.
Please take a moment to click the applicable state on the Topics screen when posting news of state and/or local interest.
While I totally agree with your sentiments and I too am thoroughly disgusted with these stand-for-nothing, country club Republicans who go to D.C. just to hold power while not having the courage or will to do anything bold with that power, the governor of Iowa would get to appoint Grassley's replacement. That means we'd get a Democrat in Grassley's place. There would be no special election since the constitution doesn't call for that in the case of a senator not being able to serve out his term. That would leave us no better off than now, and in fact worse off.
Instead of Grassley resigning, what needs to happen is Bush needs to pour the pressure on this guy and get him to support private accounts. That means Bush needs to get to Iowa and talk to the people there and get them to phone BOTH of their senators and demand their support. It means Bush needs to go on national TV to sell this plan. It means Bush is going to have to swallow his pride and get John McCain out on the stump with him to build support for his SS plan. McCain has been a very outspoken supporter of this plan. Bush needs to put that to work for him. It also means Bush needs to threaten these do-nothings with the withholding of funds from the NRSCC for their re-election if necessary.
Fortunately I heard this morning Bush and his people are going to go on a 60 day, 60 stop tour to gin up grassroots support for this needed Social Security reform. As for these recalcitrant do-nothings like Grassley, I'm convinced if Bush builds it, they will come. I think if he can get Americans behind him on this, these Senators will follow.
"Grassley's Folly - Your Taxes At Work" would be an appropriate billboard to give all the non-tourists a laugh as they drive past it on I-80.
I forgot about that monument to stupidity....
Unfortunately(?), this thread was moved to the Bloggers & Personal forum, possibly because it was unsourced.
Well .. we can help President Bush by calling, emailing, FAXing our congress people and telling them to get with the program.
I'm composing several letters - some I will send by email, and other I will send snail mail .. because it's important to the repubs to grow a spine and take these disgusting dems on.
I totally agree and am taking your words to heart. Unfortunately I live in Wackballfornia, so I'm not sure I'll get far with my Senators, though Feinstein can be reasonable at times. She even supported Bush's tax cuts. But I will try to put some pressure on her and maybe my harpy congresswoman, Jane Harman, too.
What I did was select Republican congress people or senators - and I sent them snail mail.
What I said basically was - no, I'm not your constituent - but the last time I checked I AM STILL A RESIDENT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - AND A REPUBLICAN. So, I challenge them as a Repub and as a Californian.
While none of them responded - I know their staff read it. That's all I really wanted.
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