Social Security benefit cuts eyed (borrow 2 trillion and still cut Acct+SS

[papau]

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/12/12/social_security_benefit_cuts_eyed/

Social Security benefit cuts eyed
Bush plan targets future payments
By Michael Kranish, Globe Staff | December 12, 2004

WASHINGTON -- President Bush, who has promised that his plan to allow private investment accounts in Social Security would give workers a ''better rate of return," is seriously mulling a companion effort that could cut future promised retirement benefits for millions of workers by 6 percent, even when potential gains from private accounts are included, analysts said.(meaning pretend personal account future stock profits will hide 2/3rds of the 18% cut in benefits - all done so the FIT need not be raised to get money from the rich to repay the payroll taxes that were stolen to finance the tax cut for the rich - meaning those gov bonds the old folks got put into the Soc Security Trust fund when Bush stole the payroll tax surplus really are worthless!)

While Bush is weeks away from unveiling his plan, two senior White House officials said in interviews that the president is looking at a dramatic overhaul of Social Security that would go much further than allowing private accounts because the system is rapidly going bankrupt.

The White House plans to portray Social Security as facing a potential $10 trillion shortfall in reserve funds for future decades that may require significant sacrifice from taxpayers.

David John, an analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation who has met frequently with White House officials as they prepare their proposal, said he has ''absolutely no doubt" that Bush will have to reduce the planned growth of benefits.<snip>

[bluestateguy]

1. I choose not to participate

I didn't vote for him or any of the privatizers, hence I believe I should be exempted from the cuts.

Where do a sign?

[Tyler Durden]

2. Moral values are worth it!! Wait a sec...

I seem to remember a couple o' them ol' "10 Commandments" these folks are so fond of flaunting in everyone's faces...Wait, it'll come to me....I GOT IT!

THOU SHALT NOT STEAL,

and

THOU SHALT HONOR THY FATHER AND THY MOTHER THAT IT SHALL BE WELL WITH THEE AND THOU MAYEST LIVE LONG UPON THE EARTH.


But hey, after they trashed THOU SHALT NOT KILL, I guess breaking those two was a walk in the park.

[TexasBushwhacker]

3. We need to start writing Congress NOW

We need to let them all know, in no uncertain terms, that this is unwide, unfair and unacceptable and that they will be held accountable. I can't imagine that there is even broad support for this kind of bullshit economics on the Republicans side. It would have absolutely catastrophic results.

The Social Security system was never set up as a "personal account" into which you put money and that was the money you got back upon retirement. It was set up so that the workers of today are paying for those receiving benefits today. Any surplus is supposed to be set aside and invested for future generations (like the baby boomers) who are bigger than subsequent generations and will therefore be drawing a lot of benefits. Selling it as some kind of government controlled 401k is just another one of George Bush's LIES.

[Tyler Durden]

4. "What? What?"

Said by Bush as he cupped his hand to his ear while he walked to a helicopter, avoiding answering a reporter's question.

[yellowcanine]

6. Yeah - he copied that little cute trick form Reagan. I thought it was

insulting when Reagan did it also. Reagan started doing it a lot when the Iran Contra scandal hit. For Bush to be doing it even before the beginning of the 2nd term says to me that (1) He is even more arrogant than Reagan was and (2) He is in a lot more trouble than anyone realizes. I am beginning to believe that Bush might not finish his second term as he will be forced to resign by the mounting scandals combined with the debacle in Iraq.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

8. Bushista is MUCH WORSE THAN REAGAN!!!

Reagan had a HUGE ego and he wanted to leave a legacy so he moderated his stances in his second term. Bushler is driven by the funemntalist belief that he must end the world, so we all know what happens now.

[sidpleasant]

5. More Orwellian Newspeak

"two senior White House officials said ... the system is rapidly going bankrupt."

"Rapidly" meaning "48 years" and "bankrupt" meaning "in 2052 we'll have a 15% shortfall."

Boy, I sure am glad that Bush's scheme to destroy SS was the centerpiece of his campaign so all Americans knew exactly what he was planning to do to us if he won. </sarcasm>

[papau]

7. The media knew because I and others showed them - and US Media was

quiet because

it's lazy

it's stupid,

it's owned by the GOP and dare not expose GOP lies or GOP not telling of facts - hense never an analysis in the media beyond he says/she says.


I like how the mass media folks now blame us with a bit of name calling - saying we have not proved our point, we're fringe or conspiracy freaks or partisan, all the while never reading the proof provided, and ignoring the experts provided to them.

I love my US Media.

:-)

[TexasBushwhacker]

9. Therefore, why not make it REALLY bankrupt

REALLY FAST!!! What have we got to lose?

[zann725]

11. It'll go "bankrupt" if SS monies are transferred to Swiss bank accts!

Oh, wow is us!

[LynnTheDem]

10. Inventing a Crisis; aka bush is just LYING. Again.

Poor Chicken Little Georgie...Dubya's lie in 1978 about SS going bankrupt by 1988 if it wasn't privatized fell on deaf ears. Good thing for bush, as he was DEAD WRONG. Now he's trying again with the same lie.

http://www.bushfiles.com/bushfiles/midland.html

And it's quite the bushie FLIP-FLOP from 2002;

Social Security In The 2002 Elections:
Candidates Won By Renouncing Privatization

http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/6717

And a bushie FLIP-FLOP from 2001:

Commission Impossible:
Why Bush is abandoning Social Security reform

http://www.prospect.org/print-friendly/print/V12/22/confessore-n.html

Dr. Paul Krugman sure makes it easy even for stupid rightwingnuts to understand that in fact bush is just lying -again- when he says Social Security is in "looming danger".

"Privatizing Social Security - replacing the current system, in whole or in part, with personal investment accounts - won't do anything to strengthen the system's finances. If anything, it will make things worse. Nonetheless, the politics of privatization depend crucially on convincing the public that the system is in imminent danger of collapse, that we must destroy Social Security in order to save it.

Projections in a recent report by the Congressional Budget Office say that the trust fund will run out in 2052. The system won't become "bankrupt" at that point; even after the trust fund is gone, Social Security revenues will cover 81 percent of the promised benefits.

The report finds that extending the life of the trust fund into the 22nd century, with no change in benefits, would require additional revenues equal to only 0.54 percent of G.D.P. That's less than 3 percent of federal spending - less than we're currently spending in Iraq. And it's only about one-quarter of the revenue lost each year because of President Bush's tax cuts - roughly equal to the fraction of those cuts that goes to people with incomes over $500,000 a year.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/07/opinion/07krugman.html

Follow the money; who gets rich with bush's lying scheme? Not us. Gee what a surprise.

Report Predicts Deep Benefit Cuts Under Bush Social Security Plan

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/19/politics/19SOCI.html?ex=1103086800&en=02fd1e95887df5be&ei=5070&oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=top

And to bush, "SECURITY" is synonymous with Borrow, Speculate and Hope

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/10/opinion/10krugman.html?n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fOp%2dEd%2fColumnists

So who DOES PROFIT from bush's insane plan? Wall Street, of course! What...did you think multi-millionaire "I don't understand how the poor think" bush actually gives a shit about We the People??? OH GROW UP!

"Oh, it's just another, another bushel of money. The money that's been on the sidelines in the bonds. The money that's in Social Security. Again, I think you will see a certain privatization happen. And again, it's an avalanche of money and there's just so much money on the sidelines. That's why the market has been so strong for months now."

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2004_12_05_atrios_archive.html#110268339411219288

[KayLaw]

12. Why does he hate America so?

They know it's a terrible thing they're doing which is why a WH spokesman said only weeks before election that Kerry was just trying to scare voters with this privitization talk.

[struggle4progress]

13. "Join us as we drive starving elders into the streets to die ...

... You're personally invited to help us create hell on earth. We're The Ownership Society."