Free Republic

This is now Obama’s Red Army. A White Army will be needed to oppose it.

White Army? Nope. What we need is a Constitutional Army.

From the start, everything from you boils down to “black”, “white”, “black”, “white”. Sounds like prison. I was tempted to do a word count of the number of times you’ve used the terms in this one thread, while preaching color blindness. I hope for both of us that conservatives find a messenger to lead us out of the wilderness, and I hope for your sake that messenger is white.

Let’s back up a second. When I first saw the WSJ headline “Ben Carson for President”, what came to mind was “too soon”. Too soon for Carson or ANYONE for that matter to be touted for the job, especially less than three months after the LAST election. So we may agree about the article. But, I’m not bothered by Carson himself, as you seem to be. He was a Democrat earlier? SO WHAT? Reagan was too. As for Carson’s speech, I loved it. How many times over the last four years have you pulled your hair out watching elected Republicans, always on defense, unable to put together a cogent message to counter Obama’s propaganda? Carson’s message was simple, digestible and most of all UNAFRAID. That’s what appealed to me, and apparently a lot of other folks. What got my antenna up about your response was that for someone lecturing others about “values and love of America not being race based”, you seemed to be mighty preoccupied with race. There are plenty of “white men” who say plenty of smart stuff (Beck, Limbaugh, Levin, etc). The problem is that the drop off in talent from the aforementioned to ELECTED Republicans is breath taking. And a primary qualification of ANYONE (black, white, green, blue) aspiring to lead the conservative comeback must be the ability to communicate, to the well informed AND to low information voters. Carson may be able to. Not many can. Last thing: My outlook on things has been shaped over three generations of being a minority within a minority. Hasn’t been the easiest road to travel. So PLEASE, no assumptions and no condescension.

Don’t need a lecture about “white guilt”, for one simple reason...I’m not white. And it’s not a good idea to assume that all Freepers ARE. That’s just like the libs assuming that all Tea Partiers must, by definition, be white.

I was impressed with what I HEARD from Carson at the prayer breakfast rather than what I SAW. Carson undressed President Obama, and the media. He did so in a way that elected Republicans have either been incapable of doing, or too scared to. Breath of fresh air.

?I heard the woman describe the assault... it cannot physically happen the way that she described... especially if sitting in a car...

My sentiments exactly. Before reading your post, I tried to simulate what she described and it seems quite impossible to do. I think her (and Allred's) goal was to eliminate any perception that she may have somehow been the initiator.

It wouldn't make sense to be coming out from the Obama folks

Not so sure it wasn't the Obama folks. If nothing else, the Cain story will divert attention from the bad news about Social Security officially going red. They have a knack for stepping on bad news.

Great links, Cheerio. The kind of stuff that normally gets replayed to elected Republicans by the national media, if the situation was reversed. But my bet is that Harry Reid gets a pass.

Social Security was born in the red, the guv just decided not to do anything for 80 years.

I agree, it was born in the red, but finally even the SS Trustees have to admit it. So it's now official.

Boy I’m glad I’m not a young person who has to pay that bill.

Sarcasm noted, but sadly, by procrastinating until the Social Security situation becomes an actual crisis, the politicians narrow the available options down to raising taxes on current and future workers, aka "the young".

Sunday morning! Wake up, get some coffee, scan the headlines.... and find a FR post about SS that’s already had 74 replies in two hours.

Top of the morning to you.

The Ponzi scheme will collapse. No one wants to call it that, but it is. Expect to hear howls of rage as the retired folks say “I want my money!”

I'm not a Rick Perry fan, but he was right on point with respect to Social Security being a Ponzi scheme. But unlike most Ponzi schemes, this one is being held up by the Feds AND it has a powerful constituency behind it, so it remains to be seen if it will collapse of its own weight.

Anyone have a number on what the payroll tax holiday took out of the system??

Great question. If I find out, I'll holler back.

I hope competition for greeter jobs a Wal*Mart doesn’t heat up too much in the next 5-10 years.

Amen, brother.

There is, in fact, a "Fort Knox" filled with funds that are labeled "The Social Security Fund" all of which is only to be spent on Social Security. It's somewhere in West Virginia.

Do you have a source for this because I honestly never heard of this.

DuncanWaring is right. There's a building in Parkersburg, West Virginia, with a file cabinet that holds two notebooks. The notebooks contain paperwork reflecting the government's PROMISE to pay the funds owed to SS recipients. Essentially, this paperwork is IOUs. USA Today and PBS News Hour have done news stories on this. For details, just Google "Social Security Trust Fund - Parkersburg, WV"

The projections did not allow for a depression.

You're right, which proves why we should have a healthy skepticism of all projections, especially long term ones.

SS started out in the red. I really don’t think it was ever self-sustaining. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong.

No argument here. The first social security recipient, Ida May Fuller paid a grand total of $22.54 into Social Security between 1937 and 1939. When she died in 1975 at age 101, she had received $22,888.92 in SS benefits. So by that criteria, Social Security did in fact start out in the red. But in terms of current projections, SS costs weren't projected to exceed revenues until 2032. SS Trustees are now reporting that this projection was off by 21 years.

"I seem to recall SS already being in the red even before this year’s “payroll tax holiday”. Since the “Social Security Trust Fund” has long been spent..."

Good point. You're technically right, the building in West Virginia that's supposed to hold the SS Trust Funds was raided years ago, but the projections were that costs wouldn't exceed revenues until 2032. Seems we're there already.

Wait just a minute. The politicians have been saying this point wouldn’t be reached for decades. It it possible that they were lying?

Sardonic wit noted ;-)

Next up... your 401k’s will be needed to fund SS. Wait and see.

You may be right. But whether it's raiding 401's or something else, I agree that now that the politicians have procrastinated until the system is actually in crisis, their medicine will taste nasty.