January 14, 2005

Social Security Trust Already In Trouble
By Ed Henry

What we think of as the Social Security trust fund is really the combination of two trusts. One is the Federal Old Age & Survivors Insurance trust and the other is the Federal Disability Insurance trust. They are both listed under the Intragovernmental Holdings side of the national debt that is also made up of two very different categories.

Currently, the combined Social Security trust fund is 22 percent of the national debt, 53 percent of Intragovernmental Holdings and stands at $1.6 trillion and change. Debt is debt folks. It’s not an asset and can’t pay for anything. (Read the rest here)

Libertarian Commentary on The News
By Nathan A. Barton © 2004

Are we really doing all we can to promote freedom and defend our liberties? There are little things we can do every day, and as we look through the news, we can talk about them a bit. In my opinion (like everything in this column, not necessarily anyone else’s), we can all live freer and help the cause of liberty in many little ways, daily.

Despite pressure, Bush vows "no women in combat"
Washington Times
"President Bush's policy on women in ground combat takes just four words to articulate: 'No women in combat.' Despite extended tours of duties in Iraq for soldiers and an Army examination of women's roles, the president told editors and reporters of The Washington Times yesterday in an interview in the Oval Office that he has no intention of sending women into ground combat, a mission for which they are banned under Pentagon policy. Some retired generals and commentators have called on the president to increase significantly the 150,000 troops in Iraq. Bush said he is relying on his generals not the pundits to dictate the makeup of the force." (01/12/05)

This prohibition, unfortunately, is becoming more and more a lip-service commitment, because in wars such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan (and likely in Syria, Iran, or elsewhere), there is no clear line between ground combat troops and “non-combat” troops. It is strange, when you get right to it, that although the USA is twice the population it had during WW2, that the total number of volunteer (not draftee) soldiers in WW2 is larger than what we have in the active and reserve force today. Of course, then, professional sports was not much more than the pro baseball teams (even football was still “just” a college sport) and boxing - not a hundred-billion, million-man industry. If the Bush Administration and supporters want a worldwide empire, they have to make the country accept the appropriate sacrifices - how many are willing to give up something as minor as, say, pro basketball and hockey? Ultimately, no American (man or woman) should have to be fighting outside the borders of the United States: the role is DEFENSE, not imperialism. (Read the rest of the Commentary here)

Domestic Violence Law Fuels Big Government
by Wendy McElroy, mac@ifeminists.net

The Violence Against Women Act, a hand-me-down from the Clinton administration based on gender myths, anti-male bias and an infatuation with Big Government, expires this year.

A new appropriation request for over $360 million will soon hit Congress, but a chance for gender sanity is coming. The answer to renewing VAWA should be a thundering "NO!"

What is the Violence Against Women Act? In 1994, Congress passed the act as part of an Omnibus Crime Bill. VAWA pitted the sexes against each other by focusing on "crimes of violence motivated by gender;" victims were defined as female and only women were offered the massive tax-funded benefits. (Read the rest here)

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