Posted on 03/11/2005 5:00:38 AM PST by Millicent_Hornswaggle
The Democrats have now told the Bush Administration that they are willing to talk about Social Security reform. They are willing to talk so long as there is no talk of private social security accounts.
I launched into a particularly good rant/sermon from the pulpit of the Church of the Painful Truth earlier this week .. a sermon about the most dangerous epidemic sweeping this country, the epidemic of stupidity. Actually, it's more of an epidemic of ignorance. Stupidity means you can't learn. Ignorance means you haven't. We talk about the epidemic of obesity, and all that it is costing us in terms of illness and medical expenses. Obesity? That's small stuff compared to what this epidemic of ignorance is costing us. And while we're at it ... government schools are to ignorance what fast food is to obesity. We know where its coming from ... yet we tolerate and support it.
Why can't people see through the Democrats on this one? How in the world do you garner so much public support for the idea that in a free country it is better for you to turn over your hard-earned bucks to the government on a vague and breakable promise that some of that money will be returned to you at some time in the future .. as agreed to by politicians. How in the world can people accept this premise over the idea that your money should remain in an account owned and, to an extent, controlled by you where there is a guarantee that either you or your heirs will eventually get it all back .. .with interest? Why can't people see through this? Because they're ignorant, that's why. Economically brain-dead.
What are the Democrats after? One word. Control. Control of you. Control of our senior citizens. As long as they have control over these retirement funds that should, in a sane world, be under your control ... as long as the government controls those funds, the government controls you. Tell me --- how, if you own your own retirement account --- can Democratic demagogues tell you that if you vote for anyone but them that some evil force is going to come and take that account away from you? Answer? They can't! They know that you'll look at them like they've lost their minds? You would know that you own that account, and that the money is yours, and that it isn't going to be taken away simply because you voted for a Republican ... or, preferably, a Libertarian.
Bottom line ... Democrats wouldn't be able to defend the current Social Security system as they are if the American people had even the most basic level of economic knowledge. When you drop your child off off at your local government school next Monday .. think about it.
Chile & Galveston!!
Baloney.
Democratic politicians are after what they are always after, a revenue stream to prop up and fund their pet projects. It is about the money.
How in the world do you garner so much public support for the idea that in a free country it is better for you to turn over your hard-earned bucks to the government on a vague and breakable promise that some of that money will be returned to you at some time in the future .. as agreed to by politicians.
Not baloney. Sausage maybe.
There is so much public support because so many people still have memories of an apparently out-of-date phrase, full faith and credit, which backs any financial promise made by the federal government. That, and the fact so many of us have parents and grandparents who passed along the facts of life from the dirty thirties.
Give Congress Paul Ryan's ideas some consideration. Then, pass along your ideas to your Congress critters. That's how we stop em from breaking promises . . . that and showing up at the voting booth.
Repeal social security. Don't reform it, even with market-based reforms.
I think the Bush Administration has done a lousy job of selling private accounts. If they came out and said "We think your money is better handled by you than by us." and then showed some numbers to back it up, I think there would be little debate.
There would have to be some laws in place for this money, like making it absolutely untouchable until retirement age. Not withdrwal available with a penalty. Untouchable. It would have to only go to ultra low risk / no risk funds etc...
I can't see why the People would not want to take back some of their own control. I suppose it is that "Its ok for the government to take money from me for Social Security" mentality that has been conditioned into the People that makes everyone leery about taking their own control.
There is no guarantee on Social Security. I am 35 and in my entire memory I recall knowing that it would run out of money before I would get to use it. Its been that long that we knew something would need to be done to ensure some type of retirement system. I suppose the Left has such a hard time with private accounts because, like Neal says, it takes away government control and puts it back in the hands of the People.
I absolutely agree with you. The administration has not done enough to sell people on the private accounts. If it's such a big issue, why are they letting the democrats steal it?
I am thirty-four and my husband and I have been looking for alternatives for years for retirement. Military retirement isn't what it used to be, we won't be able to live off of that and we know social security will be dead before we will be of age or they will raise the age to the point we will be dead.
Taxation on income destroys financial privacy. Taxation based on the sales of the merchant allows citizens to keep their personal financial details private. For this reason alone the Fair Tax must be passed.
Well said! The President has to get more young adults involved with his "Town Meetings". A televised Q & A session would be helpful as well. He MUST get the word out!
Time to end this government ponzi scheme! Starve the beast.
I fully support personal accounts, but the administration must make the case better and more honestly. It needs to stress the personal ownership and wealth creation aspects more, but also, they need to be more candid on the underlying reason for them. Although PA's will not solve the SS problem by themselves, they are an important ingredient to reducing the growing unfunded liability and improving the viability of the system.
Personal accounts must be linked to a reduction in benefits from the defined benefits portion of the SS system. Combining PAs with the reduced benefits will be a permanent fix for the system and give recipients a better return than the current system's benefits.
The Big Lie is that Social Security is some kind of retirement savings plan.
It is NOT.
Social Security is a socialist income redistribution scheme, nothing else.
Those who are working are taxed to provide a "safety net" for those who are less fortunate.
Originally, this meant retirees and surviving dependents.
Congress has, of course, complicated it far beyond this over the last 65 years.
But one fact remains: it is NOT a "savings plan", it is an income redistribution scheme.
A major facet of The Big Lie is that "we have to do something so that Social Security remains solvent in the future.
Poppycock!
In today's age of modern computerization, the computation for operating an income redistribution scheme that remains perpetually solvent is quite simple:
The only change necessary to the current system is that monthly payments to eligible recipients would be a variable amount, not fixed.
THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO NEED FOR A MULTI-TRILLION DOLLAR "TRUST" FUND!!!
Congress should NEVER have been permitted to confiscate so much money from the American People in the name of The Big Lie. This fund is nothing but a slush fund that Congress raids to pay for other government expenditures. If private sector employers did the same thing with their companies' pension funds, they'd be placed in prison. The "privatization" plan proposed by Bush is merely an attempt by Wall Street brokerage firms and financial institutions to get in on the scam: grab a portion of a constant revenue stream (guaranteed by taxation) from which they can skim their commissions.
The American People need to wake up and put these liars and thieves in prison.
I have to wonder how many of the People would be surprised to hear the government say "This is your money. We are giving it back to you."
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