Posted by
dolfinwriter on Thursday, February 28, 2008 4:10:33 AM
I never cease to be amazed at the ignorance of some people. I was listening to Medved this morning when someone called and tried to tell Michael he was all out to lunch on Social Security.
Unfortunately I didn’t catch all of it due to work obligations, but what I heard was staggering. The man actually believes that there are $3 Trillion in Social Security surplus sitting in a lockbox somewhere. When Medved tried to educate the man and tell him that Congress has been spending that surplus for 20+ years and filling the “lockbox” with IOU’s, the man said something to the effect that Americans would rise up en masse and rip Bush’s throat out.
When Michael tried to further educate the man and tell him it has been going on since long before Bush, the man said something to the effect that Americans would rise up and rip all their jugulars out.
Ya know... This is something that Congress has been doing since the time of Reagan, and four Presidents have now been party to it, including Bill Clinton, but it is somehow uniquely Bush’s fault.
Not only am I not a Bush apologist, I think he leaves much to be desired by true conservatives, and many of us are quite disgusted by his complete refusal to secure our borders. However, I am blown away by the idea that this ongoing fraud is his fault (as well as any natural disaster that befalls us, such as Katrina)—especially when Democrats have opposed him at every turn and tried to claim that he was going to "dismantle" Social Security whenever he has tried to give attention to permanent fixes.
I will be adding more to this post later, but I had to say this now.
Please, Republicans, Democrats, and Independents alike, if you’re reading this, educate yourself about what it was that FDR actually proposed in 1935, and what it is that Bush has been trying to get done to fully implement that plan.
But most importantly, you MUST educate yourselves about this “Trust Fund” fraud that Congress has been perpetrating on us for more than 20 years now.
This is not a partisan thing—Democrats and Republicans alike have their hands in this mess. There is no trust fund! It’s not there! Congress has SPENT it and dropped IOU’s in its place! Furthermore, even if every dollar were there, it would not be enough to make up the shortfalls that will be coming in future years. Baby Boomers will become eligible for benefits in increasing numbers, even as the number of working age folks paying into the system decreases.
Think about this--if Congress can't pay the country's bills NOW without spending this surplus, what are they going to do when the surplus dries up and then entitlements begin to grow beyond the surplus? Congress will have to either raise taxes or cut benefits.
I'm sick to death of partisans on either side playing politics with our children's future and with our very survival in the face of radical Islam and its many facets of evil, a rising industrial giant in Communist China, and a Russian President hell bent on reviving the Cold War as he slowly works to consolidate and gain absolute power in Russia. Too many in DC have forgotten why they were sent there and who pays their salary.