IOUs Really You Owe You - By Ed Henry -- Price of Liberty
IOUs Really You Owe You
By Ed Henry

Mission Statement Revised 8.04.04
 
Editorial Policy Revised 3.19.04
 
See Reader's
Feedback
 
Reader's Forum
 
Looking for Health NEW
 
Commentary on the News
 
Return to Home Page

February 17, 2005

Finally, people are beginning to understand that the government puts “IOUs” in the trust fund when they take our Social Security retirement money and spend it elsewhere. Keep it up. It’s a start, a probe in the right direction. There is no money in the Social Security trust fund. It holds nothing but markers like you might have with a bar tab, at a casino, or with the Mafia.

People are also starting to consider these markers “worthless,” and they truly are – to everyone but the government.

This is wonderful. If people pursue these points further, they may finally understand the entire scam. It may all come unraveled, even the fact that Social Security’s trust funds are a major swindle that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Why do these markers have value to the government and no one else? The answer is that they allow the government to get real cash from you, the taxpayer, without legislation.

We’ve got to get a little technical here, so hang on. The spinmeisters will tell you that the “IOUs” the government deposits, like all Treasury securities, are the “safest investment in the world.” But these are really “special obligation” nonmarketable Treasury securities invented for the occasion. They are non-negotiable, can’t be traded or sold to someone else and can only be redeemed by the party to whom they are issued.

In some ways, these are similar to legitimate Savings Bonds that were once called War Bonds and have been around for years. But you didn’t ask for them. Most people don’t even know what’s been going on.

Guess who is the “holder” of these special obligation bonds? You are. That is, you are if you’re an American taxpayer or will be someday. What makes any Treasury security the “safest investment in the world” is nothing more or less than the fact that they’re backed by every American taxpayer in the nation. Only taxpayers can redeem any portion of the national debt. The government has no money except what it gets from taxpayers.

When politicians say "the government has never failed to meet its obligations" they forget to add "with your money."

Many experts and economists have already told us that if the government ever needs to draw upon the Social Security trust fund the government will be forced to either (1) raise taxes (2) borrow from investors, or (3) cut programs.

That’s why these bonds aren’t really IOUs, but are UOUs or more precisely "You Owe Us" bogus bonds that the government put there under an elaborate set of falsehoods, distortions, and outright lies to make you responsible for buying back your own money, plus interest added at no expense to them.

After all, it was the American workers who gave them extra/surplus money to steal in the first place, at least in the case of Social Security. Don’t forget who the lender was and who was the borrower (or thief) who did this without your knowledge or permission.

Stay on the trust fund track. Trust funds are where the crime is most obvious. The words “trust fund” is the tool used to defraud you. And it’s not a semantic problem, it’s a crime.

If you want to use nicer words for outright theft, perhaps more “politically correct” or at least not as upsetting or challenging as stealing, try misfeasance, malfeasance, misappropriation, or my favorite malappropriation of funds.

Trying to get out of the trap the Beltway Bandits set up themselves, we’ve already wasted years debating “lock-boxes” when real trust funds are, by their very nature, already lock boxes. And real trust funds cost next to nothing to set up. Ask your lawyer. The cost is pennies compared to the “transitional” costs that the George “weapons of mass distraction” Bush plan is talking about.

If our surplus payroll taxes had been put in a real trust fund, just sitting there drawing simple interest, we would be $1.7 trillion to the good by now. Instead, we are that much in debt. And debt is debt folks, it doesn't buy anything.

Today, the Social Security trust fund is more than 22 percent of the entire national debt of $7.6 trillion.

The question we should be asking every federal politician and bureaucrat is – how in the world did Social Security become more than 22 percent of the national debt? Then question every point in their response.

Hound them on this question. No one else is going to do it. It’s a nonpartisan rip-off we’re dealing with. Both political cults are just as guilty and neither wants to be exposed. This is the real Social Security crisis happening right now. Make them stop stealing the money.

Visit Ed Henry's own web site!

Send a message to your elected representatives. Click here to start. Be sure to send a copy to Ed Henry.

Archives

Know Your Enemy - Missing Parts Of Usama's Speech

Social Security - Is The Battle Renewed?

Social Security II - Privatize The Profits

Borrow-holics Setting Records-

Lou Dobbs Interviews A Crook

Time For Honesty About Social Security

Stop The Bleeding For Real Social Security Reform-

Social Security Trust Already In Trouble

The Real Crisis Of Social Security

Comouflage Surrounding Social Security

Boomer Myth - The Great Fear Story For Social Security

First Things First - STOP Social Security's Bleeding

Complete Archives for Ed Henry

Submit Feedback

Name: