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Every time Greenspan opens his mouth you should hold
on to your wallet. I note that he is starting to go on and on again about the
need for Social Security reform. Remember this, whenever you hear it: Social
Security reform now is a sham. It is the “2” in the 1-2 punch of stealing from
the poor and giving to the rich that has been going on now for some decades, and
is only possible because our press corps and national memory only go back about
2 years.
The reason this bit of theft is even possible is that in order to see it happen
you have to be able to remember all the way back to the Reagan era. In those
days, people were very worried about the strain that the approaching retirement
of the Baby Boomers would cause on the Social Security system. (Remember the
days when our leaders perceived problems and actually pretended to do something
about them? Good times, good times.) The solution they came up with at the
time was to massively increase the amount of wage taxes they would take out from
working people’s paychecks to keep Social Security solvent, even through the
retirement of the Baby Boom. People’s wage taxes went way up, and they
sacrificed to preserve the safety net for older citizens, for themselves, and
for future generations. Social Security is solvent and funded through 2044
because of those changes.
This little bit of history is never mentioned in the GOP- and Corporate
Media-Officially Sanctioned Hagiography of Reagan because Reagan must always be
associated with tax CUTS, ad infinitum nauseum, ad astra, amen. This move
essentially solved the Social Security issue, at the cost of much sacrifice by
the working class, and was also part of the widening gap between rich and poor
that really built up steam during the Reagan era.
At this point, massive new revenue streams from the working class are pouring
into Washington’s coffers. This money is supposed to be used to fund Social
Security, but it is spent immediately on current spending, as is all Social
Security money. The wealthy begin thinking how nice it is to have all of that
wage tax money coming into the government, and wouldn’t it be nice to have it
fund more and more of the government? All that would be required is to get rid
of Social Security. Then all that money could be used to pay for other
government spending, and the rich could lobby for lower taxes for them. The con
would be ruined, however, if people remembered that the money was for Social
Security.
Fast forward to the Clinton years. Gore is campaigning for president in 2000,
and he can hear the wealth and corporate class clamoring for tax cuts and he
knows that most people have forgotten what was up with their wage taxes. After
all, there hasn’t been talk about a Social Security crisis for years, and the
government is flush with revenues. He endeavors to remind voters that the US
now has the means to not only continue paying current Social Security, but to
really put the money earmarked for Social Security aside to make sure we can pay
for the Baby Boomers and their strain on SS. He talks about a lockbox, so that
the extra money coming from their wage taxes can be put to the use it was
originally intended for, keeping Social Security solvent until 2044. The
whorporate press, in their glee at having something else besides GOP slander and
calumny with which to mock and ridicule Gore, now use this phrase as part of the
Atomic Media Wedgy they are applying to him. “Ha ha ha”, they laugh. “Gore
said ‘lockbox’. What a loouooser.”
Fast forward to 2004. The money earmarked for Social Security is long gone, and
then some. The working class is still paying higher taxes, and the money is
being spent to buy tax cuts for the extremely wealthy, and to run the
government. Even though people thought they were paying higher taxes in the
80’s to save Social Security, that goal has disappeared under a walnut shell.
Once again, Alan Greenspan crawls out of the woodwork to start talking about the
‘impending crisis’ in Social Security, how everyone should expect to have their
benefits cut (and also talks about how dangerous our deficit and debts are, see
“Why You Shouldn’t Act Like an International A-Hole").
Now, Greenspan is no dummy. He remembers perfectly well that the much larger
payroll tax that people are paying already saved Social Security until 2044, if
our leaders would use other revenue sources for other expenses. Social Security
will take care of itself. But “other revenue sources” includes taxes on wealth,
and gee, wealthy people are tired of paying taxes. Wouldn’t it be better to
just get rid of Social Security, lower the benefits, just kill it quietly in the
corner, and continue to get those payroll taxes?
The only thing that could stop them from doing this is a media which is not
lazy, ignorant, foolish, and in the pocket of corporations. In others words, we
are screwed. And Greenspan, apparently, is happy to help.
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