Bush Says Social Security Faces 'Looming Danger'

[Gyre]

Worthy of a George Lakoff analysis as reinforcing a "strategic initiative" of the repubes.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=2NJDNGNZDX4ROCRBAE0CFFA?

Lets see how this works: 1) further solidify the meme that Social Security is on the verge of insolvency with a lie (which it is not), which 2) drives the majority of Americans, 40 and under (who already believe they're not going to collect anything from it, because of a consistent repube meme that originated in the 80s) into waiting stockbroker's clutches after they "opt out". 3) This exodus in turn leads to the "base of the financial pyramid" getting knocked out of Soc Sec and the Social Security system actually does become insolvent, due to heavy borrowing by this administration and no real ability to renew it's coffers because the $ "invested" by my generation is no longer there and there's no substantial new "investment" because those with the major earning power have already "opted out". Meanwhile Wall Street gets REALLY FAT on what used to be the enforced retirement accounts of millions of young American's who've been fed a line, and swallowed it whole. (see ya picking thru garbage cans for dinner during your golden years chumps!)

Gyre

PS. Sorry. Can't get this dang link to work!

[Devil Dog Dem]

1. Social Security is a grave and gathering threat.

We wouldn't want the next smoking gun to be in the form of a mushroom cloud, would we?

[pleiku52cab]

4. We could stop this from happening

if we knew the place, date, time, airplane flight number, and the seat assignments.

[Devil Dog Dem]

7. We don't need a permission slip to protect America from Social Security

If the U.N. won't act, we will lead of coalition of the willing to change this Social Security Regime.

[SharonAnn]

35. Well, we'd still need a "plan" telling us what to do about it

[Pirate Smile]

24. Hmmm, where did I hear this was exactly what Bushy boy was going to do?

"To build public support and circumvent critics in Congress and the media, the president will travel the country and warn of the disastrous consequences of inaction, as he did to sell his Iraq and terrorism policies during the first term, White House officials said. He is also enlisting well-funded conservative groups such as the Heritage Foundation to help build the case for change -- or "reform," in the words of the White House -- through ads and commentary on television and in targeted publications, the aides said.

Bush's post-election moves to strengthen White House control of the government reflect his plans for an aggressive second-term focus on domestic policy, which in his first term was overshadowed by the national security fallout from the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The agenda includes creating private Social Security accounts for younger workers, revising the tax code to make it less complicated, limiting the size and number of lawsuits, and changing immigration laws."

Oh, yeah, right here - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53451-2004Dec9.html

[msgadget]

2. You're right, the threat is

many retirees will resort to subsisting on cat food again.

[Demeter]

3. We Have Seen The Enemy, And It Is BUSH!

He is the greatest danger to everything on earth and in the sky and seas. So take him out of power--please!

[indepat]

21. Like Pogo says "We have met the enemy and it is us" (we) who choose our

leaders.

[snippy]

28. You left out space. He and Rummy want to weaponize space. n/t

[Straight Shooter]

5. Looming danger, thy name is bush

Creeps and shivers, he'll destroy us all.

[Skink]

9. This is just part of the Rapture....

[struggle4progress]

44. !

[ailsagirl]

6. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with our SS System

but now the spinners are insisting there is-- which, apparently, makes it so.

Another freedom destroyed.

Here is an article from Media Matters that tells the truth about these spinners:

Media reports pave the way for Social Security privatization

http://mediamatters.org/items/200412100012

They just keep ripping us off...

[tsuki]

34. I wonder how all the widows and minor children

are affecting the system?

[Robbien]

8. BushCo standard MO

Scream loudly that there is a threat where none exists. (Iraq, Social Security)

Provide insane unworkable solution which puts the matter on to a dismal spiraling road to hell. During which BushCo corporate cronies make tons of money off the public trust.

[Eric J in MN]

10. According to Bush, because Social Sec. will have a

shortfall in 40 years, we should start putting LESS money into the Social Security fund today.

That does not make sense.

It would make sense 40 years from now to raise the Soc. Security tax.

Don't mess with Soc. Security today.

[TahitiNut]

23. Two trillion dollars would push even that 'shortfall' back by decades.

It's insane. Anyone who buys into the bushwha is a true ignoramus. A small increase in the retirement age, which I'd suggest be equal to half the increase in life expectancy, between now and 2052 would make Social Security solvent for the foreseeable future ... which, by the way, is longer than the system has even been around so far.

[Bono71]

47. If that statement is true (and I don't doubt it is) then I suspect

that is what will happen (entending the retirement age). I just don't see there being enough votes to "privatize" it.

[stevebreeze]

11. liberal press alert

Read this snip about 6 paragraphs down.
............

Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada insists: "There is no emergency at this time." The incoming Senate Democratic leader argues that Social Security trust funds will provide full benefits for almost 50 years.
..............

Harry Reid argues? Excuse the hell out of me but this is what the SS Trustees say. 4 of the 6 SS trustees are Bush appointees.

Harry Reid should just plain call Bush for what he is a lying son of a bitch!

[w4rma]

43. Maybe he did. That's a very short quote, there could be alot more context.

7 words. How could Reid call Bush a liar and say that "there is no emergencey at this time" in 7 words or less?

[pleiku52cab]

12. Even Krugeman interrupted his vacation

to write an editorial stating that, even when the system could face problems 50 years from now with a 19% shortfall in revenues, just leave it alone and do not extend the tax cuts of people earning over 500 thousand a year. Don't even have to rescind them - just don't extend them - and there will be enough government revenue to cover even this 19% gap.

[ClintonTyree]

14. But then Bu$h's friends.......................

wouldn't have the chance to steal all of that juicy Social Security money from your Grandma! You don't want THAT to happen now, do you? That's THEIR money, to hell with all of those little folks. God put that money there for them to steal. You don't wan't to piss God off, do you?

[MidwestTransplant]

in 2055 it is

[bullimiami]

13. It sure does. From W and friends.

[stevebreeze]

15. the real "looming danger"

Is that SS will fix itself be for the republicans fix it for themselves. As pointed out in the months dollars and sense mag. http://www.dollarsandsense.org/1104orr.html
The "go bankrupt" date for SS gets father away the closer we get to it. Just 8 short years ago SS was supposed to reach an unfunded position in 2030. The last trustee's report says 2042. So as we got 8 years closer to the SS crises the crises moved 12 years further down the road. This is due to extremely conservative estimates on growth.

So to save SS we need massive new debt, drastic cuts in benefits and spending far more of our SS dollar on Wall Street managers?

[Ian David]

16. I want to invest MY SS in Gold and Euros!!!

[Florida_Geek]

17. Social Security has WMD and in 45 minutes could attack the

US of A.

Grrrrrr

[Nay]

18. It sure does: Bush and his bandits.

[Cha]

19. I'd like to see everybody that cares..

wearing a "bush better Not Mess with my Social Security!" pin.

[punpirate]

20. What amazes me in all this hoopla...

... is that no mainstream source mentions, in concert with Bush's pronouncements, that a similar scheme was tried in the UK, beginning in the mid-`80s under Thatcher. It was recently announced that the plan is, basically, bust, after less than twenty years.

Nor do the mainstream sources state the obvious--it's going to hammer the country (and the dollar) due to the initial debt load, and that it's a stealth plan to completely get rid of Social Security. It's obvious enough to most of the people here, so why is it a mystery to the best and the brightest in the media? :shrug:

[LynnTheDem]

22. There bush goes again...LYING LYING LYING.

Maybe some "good christians" could explain how bush's CONSTANT LYING is "godly".

[LynnTheDem]

25. bush said SS would go bust within 10 years...in 1978.

bush; ALWAYS WRONG. ALWAYS A LIAR.

In its 1978 elections roundup, Time magazine would assert, “Money, computers, polls, and image makers continued to change the face of American politics into something that would have been unrecognizable to the candidates even a few years ago.

*snip*

According to Gary Ott, who was then a reporter for the Plainview Daily Herald, Bush stopped by the paper’s little office “maybe five or six times. He’d sit down at my desk; he was a fun guy. He was very outgoing, very friendly, and we would argue politics since I was a liberal. We’d argue over Carter policies.” Bush criticized energy policy, federal land use policy, subsidized housing, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“a misuse of power,” he said), and he warned that Social Security would go bust in ten years unless people were given a chance to invest the money themselves.

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


bush; ALWAYS WRONG. ALWAYS A LIAR.

[fshrink]

26. Typical example of what, according to McAuliffe and his

marketing morons, democrats should do. And if it comes to that, I'll join the non-voting masses.

[creeksneakers2]

27. My question

How can the vast right wing conspiracy call a shortfall in one government program in 2055 a crisis, but say that a half trillion dollar deficit in 2004 for the entire government is easily manageable?

[AzDar]

29. latest intelligence reveals: Social Security trying to buy yellowcake from

Niger.

[GOPBasher]

30. SS is in danger BECAUSE of his tax cuts!

[stevebreeze]

42. Bush tax cuts three times the size of SS shortfall

link here

http://www.cbpp.org/3-5-03bud-fact.htm

[sweetheart]

31. Social Security has WMD's, 45 minutes!!!!

Invade... lay waste... don't ask.

[goforit]

32. President Boogieman at it again..FEAR FEAR FEAR!!!!!

What a schmuck!!

[susu369]

36. Booga! Booga!

I love David Steinberg.:)

[regnaD kciN]

33. Time for a DU RAPID RESPONSE project...

EVERYONE should write their local newspapers and contact their congresscritters. Even if said congresscritter is a diehard Republican, make it clear that this is a "single issue" matter for you, and anyone voting to ABOLISH Social Security will lose their vote from now until eternity.

And that's the word to use: ABOLISH. Use it every time you speak or write on the matter. Don't let them get away with the frame that this is "reform"...it is elimination.

Also, be sure to point out that THERE IS NO CRISIS. Social Security, according to its own Bush-appointed trustees, is fully-solvent until 2052, and even then, if no action were taken before that time, would only have to reduce benefits 20%.

When writing LTTE, don't be afraid to call Bush's "crisis" claim for what it is...a LIE.

Act NOW, while the Bush machine is just getting up to speed, or else it may gain unstoppable momentum. And make sure you keep spreading the meme (which, in this case, is the truth!) that we're fully solvent until at least mid-century, with only minor changes needed to preserve full benefits beyond that time. Point out that this is not a case where one needs to kill the patient in order to halt the illness, which is just what the Bush malAdministration is proposing. Keep it going from now until Bush actually makes his proposal, then be ready to hit the media and legislators all over again, and to do it a third time when a vote is actually pending.

We (The People ;-) ) need to do this ourselves...not wait for the DNC or one or another "insider" organization to do it for us -- that way lies madness, not to mention another Dem fold. (Although I do think a letter to Senator Reid, encouraging him to "draw a line in the sand" on this one, is in order.)

[hollowdweller]

38. What's the big deal with raising the payroll tax some? Or taking the

cap off? Or what about means testing it? Surely anybody who is still collecting 80 100 thousand a year after retirement wouldn't begrudge benefits to somebody who SS is their only retirement income. Have we become so greedy that we wont pay an extra five or ten bucks a month to make sure our seniors are taken care of?

So many old people have lost their pensions thru bankruptcies and sell outs and so many young people are making so little and have no pensions or money to go into any kind of investments SS is going to be more valuable than ever.

[USAFORME]

37. "Bush Says Social Security Faces 'Looming Danger'"

Sure does. It's the GOP!

[RPM]

39. yep - grave danger....

... from his meddling and incompetence.

Guh

F' him

[Sugarbleus]

40. What a blantant crock of BS.........but then we knew he

and his ilk wanted to kill social programs for decades. FASCIST PIGS.

http://www.ncpa.org

Is helping bush "formulate" a plan to "reform/privatize" SS. All neocon bugfuckers. John Goodman, (president of ncpa) is heavy into the insurance industry. Saw him and others on C-Span the other day.

[Gyre]

41. Try this link everybody.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=7061858

Gyre

[allalone]

45. I presume he means his bloody claws.

[2cents]

46. I don't understand, if...

a) SS is solvent for the next 40 - 50 yrs.
b) boomers will be the biggest draw on SS
c) most boomers will be long gone within the next 40-50 yrs.

What's the problem? (btw I'm a boomer)