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11/21/08
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May 04, 2005 A compliant, docile, but attentive group of selected reporters in the room, finally given the opportunity to ask questions before a prime time audience, managed to avoid almost entirely the two subjects Potus came forward to talk about. It was almost as though the two “vital priorities” for tonight had been a surprise to them so they took the opportunity to ask about other things ranging from filibusters to faith based initiatives and Iraqtile dysfunction. At the next presidential conference there should be vendors moving through the audience selling “red hots, ice cold beer.” Maybe, cheerleaders encouraging the reporters to do “waves” at the appropriate time and chant “we will, we will rock you.” Follow up hasn’t been much better. The newshounds, watchdogs, talking heads, stink-tanks, and the Fourth Estate in general seem to have missed the point. Oh, they’ve covered such things as the plan to soak the rich while ignoring the bottom ten percent of the work force, the few lucky enough to live longer by finding their doctors “in” and affordable, or whether Social Security is really going “bankrupt.” But they miss or refuse to think about the root of the problem. At this press conference, Bush didn’t wave any Parkersburg Papers in the air calling them “worthless” or “meaningless,” but he did say that “any reform of Social Security must replace the empty promises being made to younger workers with real assets, real money” which seems to imply that today’s assets in trust are not real. Either that or younger workers have real assets, real money, that he may be after with better promises. It’s sometimes hard to tell exactly what our president means. Much later in the hour long session, and in response to one of the two questions about Social Security, he did launch into his more practiced diatribe by saying: “Now, it’s very important for our fellow citizens to understand there is not a bank account here in Washington, D.C., where we take your payroll taxes and hold it for you and then give it back to you when you retire. Our system is called pay as you go. You pay into the system through your payroll taxes and the government (goes and) spends it. It spends the money on the current retirees and with the money left over, it funds other government programs. All that’s left behind is a file cabinet full of IOUs. This doesn’t bother our unshakable Fourth Estate one iota. One and all, they simply ignore this confession. Another of many confessions to a crime greater than Enron, WorldCom, or any private sector crooks even thought of or had the opportunity to pull off. A crime that today amounts to $3.2 trillion in bogus securities. Oh, excuse me; I should have called them “unfunded liabilities.” That has a much nicer, softer, more gentle ring to it doesn’t it? You should feel much better about the money you’ve forfeited, money that disappeared like the bubbles in a glass of their champagne, money that was magically transformed into debt with interest compounding every year and is now a debt you and your children are due to pay again to the same crooks. Of course, the same individuals may not be in office when it comes time to pay these taxes a second time plus interest, but the same cults will be there promoting the same false stories, telling the same lies and walking off with even more of your payroll taxes. That may be what's so difficult to understand. It's the system that's corrupt. Both republicans and democrats are equally guilty. Social Security is merely the largest entitlement caught in this scam. Only $1.7 trillion of Social Security’s money is currently involved in this rip-off of our excessive payroll tax payments. Our esteemed president sees these profits rolling into his coffers until at least 2041 and then has the audacity to childishly proclaim that old farts like me needn't worry about getting their checks. Isn't that a kick? And yes Mr. President, we wish you had put these surpluses in a bank somewhere, anywhere the managers might have been honest or at least subject to the law. You could even have stuffed it all in a mattress and we would be better off than we are now, especially since you are using these “worthless” securities to double tax us plus interest. These fictitious trust funds and their fictitious holdings are certainly not "worthless" to the government. They are a constant source of authorized borrowing and program cutting, permission to rob Peter to pay Paul. For example, how did the Unemployment Trust Fund go from a high of $92 billion to its current level of $39 billion? Obviously, withdrawals are being “funded” from somewhere. We know you’re not raising taxes, so is it coming from borrowing or cutting budget programs? Malappropriation no matter how you look at it. The same is true of your own Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) that’s been in the red eleven of twelve months a year. But people still got their benefit checks didn't they? Now Social Security reform will turn to a bipartisan committee where all the democrats will dance around the fire chanting and beating their chests about cutting benefits, raising the age of retirement, eliminating the cap on salaries, building a reserve like Senator Moynihan started in 1983 and worked so well for you, plus other schemes to immediately increase the booty. Giving yourselves more loot. Screwing us some more. All for reform that isn’t at all necessary. All for reform that, if the system really faced a crisis, could be “fixed” a few weeks before or even after the crisis struck – and hopefully fixed by people smarter and more honest than those in office today. And still no one asks for an accounting of what happened to surpluses from the past, how they became part of the national debt, much less what’s going to be done to correct this injustice. As things are now, it looks like we need to change slogans like “fit to print” to a much more common and derogatory replacement for the first word. And Mr.
President, don’t forget what one of the Indians in Buffalo Bill’s
show said: “Once in awhile even the beaver has a tree fall on him
as he tries to chew it down.”
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.
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Secrets Neither Political Cult Will Tell You Bush Put The Fox Back In The Chicken Coop Unfunded Liabilities - What They Are Job Market Reflected In Payroll Taxes $3.2 Billion A Day - $2.25 Million A Minute Go George Go - Keep Talking About Social Security Pipedreams Of Social Security Reform Open Letter To President Bush & Congress Parkersburg Papers At The Bureau Of Public Debt The Job Market Reflected In March Payroll Taxes Changing Direction On Social Security Reform Cacophony - Don't Feed The Animals Your Money - Gone, But Not Forgotten Complete Archives for Ed Henry | ||||||||||||||
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