As I was watching the second presidential "debate" in early October of 2008, I finally had to change the channel and instead started watching a movie on HBO. My throat had gotten sore from yelling at the TV, and my homicidal rage had built up to dangerous, almost psychotic levels. Apparently, the two candidates, John McCain and Barack Obama, could not hear me!
As with the current economic "crisis" that spawned a huge bailout and slut-purchasing "beads & trinkets" totaling a stupendous $840 Billion, all without committee hearings and deliberations (just like the USA PATRIOT Act), all we mere "peons" know is what the "experts" tell us. And, like good little boys and girls, we buy into these doom-&-gloom predictions without a shred of personal knowledge. Fear is an amazing motivator.
FOR EXAMPLE: both presidential candidates regurgitated the “conventional wisdom” that Social Security is in dire straits. Just a few years from now, the Social Security "trust fund" will be bankrupt or draining or whatever scenario fits the particular political hack-job being promoted. We numerous retired Baby Boomers will just suck the lifeblood out of the US economy like big fat ticks, noshing on bon-bons, gobbling up the national seed corn while crudely burping into the faces of the dwindling, slave-like wage-earners!! (I intend to do my best!)
SO! Our would-be leaders insist: We HAVE to raise FICA taxes or cut back on benefits! NOW! Dammit! Just DO something!
(Ah-g-g-gh! The sky is falling!)
So long as we don't increase INCOME taxes (on po' widdle rich folks especially), we just need to jack up the non-deductible FICA taxes paid by (mostly) the wage-earning working stiffs of the country or screw them out of future benefits, and we will SAVE SOCIAL SECURITY and can pat ourselves on the back!!
God bless America! Congratulations to me!
Pardon me for being my cynical, skeptical self. In one corner are the double-team of Henry Paulson, late of Goldman Sachs and currently our Treasury Secretary, and Ben Bernanke, Chair of the Federal Reserve. In the other corner are the rest of us. We have been warned. If Paulson tells me that the sky is blue and that the sun sets in the west, I shall refrain from believing same until I verify that for myself.
You think me harsh and unreasonable? Paulson is the same wizard who told us in March that "the 'fundamentals' are sound." I heard that statement with my own ears on NPR, even though I did not have a clue as to what “fundamentals” meant. Now Paulson has $700 BILLION of “your own money" to mess with, and his right-hand man is a 35-year-old MBA that Paulson brought over from Goldman Sachs and who will actually decide what to do with all that loot.
Both John McCain and Barack Obama as US Senators had voted for that slippery bailout, as did Va. Senators John Warner & Jim Webb. Senate candidate Mark Warner also supported it, as did most Democrats. Warner’s opponent, "Sunny Jim" Gilmore opposed it, as did Reps. Bobby Scott and Virgil Goode, among others.
BUT--I digress.
As for Social Security, the first important thing to remember is that there is no "trust fund,” per se, where the FICA receipts are segregated from the rest of the federal revenues. In fact, although they are so noted separately somewhere on paper, the ordinary budget accountings do not reflect the actual sums paid in by the FICA tax as against Social Security benefits paid. No. FICA revenues are dumped into the same general pot as other federal revenues, and they are then spent like other federal revenues, just as Social Security benefits are accounted like any other federal expenditure. There may be no real Social Security deficit, and one may never truly materialize. There IS a massive deficiency in general revenues, and the "bipartisan" deficit spending for the past several years (including the spending for Social Security benefits) is eating up all the FICA revenues along with everything else. So, the question is begged: is the Social Security system really in trouble, as alleged, or is it just "cash-poor" because of the total overspending?
A second thing to remember is that most of us Baby Boomers (unlike myself) had 2 or 3 children, who in turn have had children, and most of them are still going to be earning salaries and wages generating FICA revenues even after we parasitic Baby-Boomers have all retired and are wantonly sucking on the host. The continuing FICA revenue stream that will keep coming in the future seems utterly disregarded in "bipartisan" fashion for the convenient purpose of scaring the Hell out of us!
We Baby Boomers were supposed to die off young because we all partied our asses off at Woodstock and thereafter. We won't be drawing SS benefits after we start taking the "dirt nap." (I'm still feeling a little woozy from Woodstock myself, and I didn’t go there. They told me I had a good time, anyway.)
We should tune out the pols and experts until we are reasonably satisfied that an alleged problem truly exists, based upon clear, unambiguous evidence with real numbers and thorough deliberation, (unlike what occurred with the bailout). Giving our implicit trust to those who may well have ulterior motives is no longer reasonable, and we must revive our skepticism and assert our rights to be thoroughly informed. Sadly, we must now assume that "the government" (our leaders) are lying to us. We should impose a "clear and convincing" burden of proof from now on. I think most of them are willing to increase payroll tax revenues so they can smugly say they did not raise “income” taxes.
Our Fearless Leaders need to quit lying, quit pandering to our fears and quit trying to take short cuts on our self-interests.
