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11/21/08
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May 06, 2005 It’s a very short “Resolution of Inquiry” regarding the Social Security trust fund. It’s also called “H. Res. 170,” not to be confused with H.R. 170 that stands for House of Representatives bill number 170 and deals with a separate issue. House Resolution 170 is very short. The wording is as follows: “H. Res. 170 would request the President, within 14 days, to transmit further information to the House of Representatives clarifying a statement that he made at a stop in Portsmouth , New Hampshire , that ‘there is no Social Security trust.’ CBO estimates that the cost of complying with the request would be insignificant. The resolution would not affect direct spending or revenues.” Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) urged House members to support this resolution during one of those infamous one minute speeches they’re allowed before a session of Congress. Notice that the inquiry is directed specifically at one statement where Bush said “there is no Social Security trust” and ignores all the other statements he made calling the Parkersburg Papers “worthless” or others where he said that the trust holdings are “meaningless.” By concentrating on the statement that implies there is no trust fund at all, that it doesn’t exist, the accountants at the CBO have President Bush caught in one of the simple mistakes almost everyone in Congress has made over and over when they talk about “raiding” the trust funds. No one can truly “raid” bogus accounts. If they could, they would be lessening our indebtedness, reducing the national debt. The truth is that there is a trust fund. It’s very real. It’s just not a real trust fund. That’s a very important difference and it’s not merely a matter of semantics. It’s what caused Congress to waste years on the vagaries of “lock-boxes” all of which was just the bandit’s weak attempt to swear off stealing our retirement money. The “raid” takes place before the black hole debit trust accounts are credited with worthless (to us) “special obligation” securities. Then it becomes part of the fraud of pretending that the same money can be both spent and saved. The trust funds never hold any real cash. If they did, we could sue the trustees for releasing it. What everyone refers to as “the Social Security trust fund” is really two trusts: The Federal Old Age & Survivors Insurance trust fund (FOA&SI) and The Federal Disability Insurance trust fund (FDI). The CBO knows these trusts very well since they follow the U.S. Treasury’s recording and withdrawal from all trust funds. The CBO has the responsibility of transmitting this data to the members of Congress. It’s one of the research arms of Congress. The CBO should also understand just how “worthless” these trust funds are to everyone but the government. You will find them faithfully recorded under the "Intragovernmental Holdings" portion of the national debt. It was their own former director, June O’Neill who, at the CATO Institute’s Conference for Women and Social Security said: "It holds no real assets. Consequently, it does not generate funds to pay future benefits. These so-called trust fund 'assets' simply reflect the accumulated sum of funds transferred from Social Security over the years to finance other government operations." And she is just one of many officials who have said the same thing. When conducting his echo chamber sixty cities in sixty days campaign, even President Bush says repeatedly “I know I’ve got a lot of explaining to do” as he claims that the trust fund holdings are “worthless.” But he never gets around to the explanation. He dances up to the precipice, hoping that will be enough, and never takes the plunge. Let’s hope that the CBO is trying to force Bush over the precipice, to take the plunge. Let’s hope that they are insisting on a formal explanation of what’s been going on since at least 1983. Let’s hope that the entire scam will come out in the open and that people will finally understand that these phony trusts are a way for the government to double tax us plus interest. In other words, these trust funds really are “worthless” to us, but not to the government. The “unfunded liabilities” they hold are debt, currently 22 percent of the national debt recorded under “Intragovernmental Holdings” for Social Security. And they will be redeemed in the only way any part of the national debt can be redeemed – with taxpayer money. We will pay, and pay a second time, the same amount of money that the government stole and spent elsewhere. And now it has annual interest added on top of it. That’s what these double dealing, back stabbing, political pirates mean by “unfunded liabilities.” They’re markers that haven’t been used to collect money from us yet. There are many other trust funds in the same category of the national debt that have already been and are continuously being cashed-in. Right now, as you read this. We’ve
been this close to the Social Security precipice before. During the summer
of 2001, we were this far and the media was joking about the trust funds.
You all know what happened to set the issue aside.
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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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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