Bush to Say Social Security Headed to Bankruptcy

[wicket]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050202/us_nm/bush_dc_13

President Bush (news - web sites) prepared to warn Americans on Wednesday in his State of the Union speech that Social Security (news - web sites) is "headed toward bankruptcy" unless overhauled and urge wary members of Congress to work with him to change it.

"Fixing Social Security permanently will require an open, candid review of the options," Bush said in speech experts released by the White House. "I will work with members of Congress to find the most effective combination of reforms."

-snip-

Facing deep opposition from Democrats and uncertainty from fellow Republicans, Bush planned to offer details of his proposal to create voluntary private accounts in Social Security, a major change to the 70-year-old sacred cow of American politics.

Bush said Social Security is in need of "wise and effective reform." "Social Security on its current path is headed toward bankruptcy. And so we must join together to find the most effective combination of reforms," he said.

[NC_Nurse]

1. Yeah, but

"deficits don't matter" and we can still afford to "liberate" other countries. So bullshit, Mr. pResident! You have NO credibility.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

2. And if he makes that statement then either Reid or Pelosi MUST

out and out call him a complete LIAR

[Nitrogenica]

3. Isn't our Country headed for bankrupcy, much much sooner?

Good Grief!

[ashling]

34. * says that soc. sec. is will be insolvent

and this is a crisis. Hell, they country is insolvent now for cryin' out loud, and that doesn't seem to bother them.
:puke:

[Cha]

4. I say .."prove it"...or get the

hell outta the way!

[Megahurtz]

5. LIAR!!!

:argh:

[robertpaulsen]

6. It is...in 2042!!! Howza bout gettin our priorities straight, Dumbya?

How about fixing our dependence on oil first? Even the most conservative estimates show the world will hit its production peak well before 2042.

Priorities, asshat. Priorities.

[Zynx]

7. Actually 2052 according to the CBO. 2042 is the Bushit number.

It used to be 2029. It keeps getting bumped back and it will be again because their forecasts for economic growth are far too low.

[dweller]

19. the *moron* started this Soc Sec lie with 2018 as the year of 'crisis'

why 2018?

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0127/p09s01-coop.htm

read about 2018, there's your 'crisis'.

dp

[librechik]

8. even then it will be far from bankrupt

it's like complaining because you've spent all your college money and you're down to nothing but the enormous and secure trust fun checks coming from Uncle. Hmm, that does sound very Shrub-like.

[snippy]

12. Exactly. Bush is telling a complete and total lie about "bankruptcy."

If absolutely nothing is done in the next 40 years, benefits for future retirees would have to be reduced by around 25%, not eliminated. And such a reduction in benefits would not be as large as the one Bush is going to insist on as part of his plan.

A remarkable number of younger republicans think that they will never receive a penny in Social Security benefits. This is astonishing even if you allow for their overwhelming ignorance and bizarre craving to be lied to by their republican leaders.

[robertpaulsen]

14. Thanks everyone. I stand corrected and Bush is a BIG FAT LIAR!

[bpilgrim]

17. the shortfall, then, will be equivalent to 0.03 percent of our GDP

according to the LIBERAL CBO ;->
(or somewhere round there, i believe)

psst... pass the word

peace

[Straight Shooter]

9. Get rid of those tax cuts, bush

You want us to sacrifice? You go first. And Frist, and DeLay, and Hatch, and Ken Lay, and all those other dipwads who can't seem to keep their hands off my money.

You want to stimulate the economy, bush? Who wants to buy stuff when they're better off saving it for retirement if Social Security goes down the drain? Do I buy a new car, or do I look for an old dependable car and keep the difference in my own personal savings account in a bank of my choice?

You aren't looking very far into the future, george, as usual. You don't understand how people act when they're worried about future financial security, because you have never walked in our shoes.

[truthisfreedom]

10.

wake me when it's over.

[Kansas Wyatt]

11. In all fairness to dimwit Bush....

Whatever Bush touches, he bankrupts. That's the only thing the dimwit knows how to do. So now that he wants to touch Social Security, he will bankrupt it and leave it for someone else to fix or take the loss.

Social Security is headed for bankruptcy as long as Bush has his greedy paws on it.

[snippy]

13. Unfortunately, you make a very valid point. n/t

[driver8]

22. That's what I was thinking...BUSH = BANKRUPTCY

Keep your fucking hands off of our SS, Shrub and there won't be any problems...tell the rest of your money grubbing pals to do the same.

Bunch of freakin' criminals...

[whistle]

15. Bush is full of shit, he and his croonies are plundering social security

....by spending the surpluses now, having the treasury issue the fund IOU's which the republicans never plan to pay back. That way everyone except the rich looses!

[HockeyMom]

16. Fear

More fear tactics just like Iraq's WMD.

[Art_from_Ark]

24. Reagan was saying the same damn thing

I'm listening to a cassette tape recording I made of radio news back in late March 1981. Reagan (aka Doofus the First), who had just taken office a couple of moinths before, was going around like Chicken Little screaming that Social Security was DOOMED! So Doofus the First presented a "Bold New Initiative to Keep Social Security from Going Belly-Up" (like greatly cutting future benefits), but the Democrats at that time actually had some guts to stand up to him and call him on his bullshit. In fact, they made such a stink that the White House was forced to downgrade these "sweeping proposals" as "nothing more than a package of ideas"

[nodictators]

18. Bush is going to suck Social Security dry

From AP:

Under Bush's Social Security plan, workers would be allowed to divert up to two-thirds of their payroll taxes into private investment accounts, according to a Social Security expert who was briefed on the plan Wednesday. Contributions would be capped at $1,000 per year, rising each year by $100. Social Security's guaranteed benefits would be reduced to make up for money diverted to the private accounts.

And middle-aged people under 55 will be totally screwed by Bush:

Bush was not expected to explain his Social Security proposal in detail or to talk about benefit cuts. He has pledged that current retirees would not encounter any benefit change under his plan, and the same would hold true for near-retirees. Congressional officials, citing administration briefers, said the cutoff was 55 and older.

[Booster]

20. Why anyone, and I mean anyone, would believe a word this

asswipe says is beyond me. They should have all learned a lesson in lying on the WMD debacle. The people being interviewed are mostly over 55, so it won't matter to them what he does - all they think is "no more taxes". Dumbshits.

[Skypilot 18]

21. The no creditability Preznit

Be prepared for another trip the cleaners. I'm 50 so I guess I probably won't see a red cent of my SS. Even though I've paid into the system all my working life.

You get the feeling we're getting looted by criminals? I sure do and I'm 100% correct and that's what is so scary.

Skypilot 18

www.skypilotclub.com

[Carolab]

30. Hey, I'm 56 and I am COMPLETELY upset with what he is trying to do!

So don't say that. We are not ALL about "no more taxes", etc. That is the REPUBLICAN line of crap, not the Democratic position.

I am 100% against this "reform" plan and have contributed to Borosage's efforts among others to stop this corrupt administration from touching social security. It works just FINE, thank you--the MOST successful Federal program EVER in the history of the U.S. and an absolute NECESSITY as a social safety net for ALL of society.

The people of my generation paid in excess FICA taxes to CREATE the surplus that is there and we'll be DAMNED if this POS "president" who STOLE the office and never worked an honest day in his whole damned life is going to rob us AND bankrupt the system just because of his GREEDY, SCUM-SUCKING "BASE".

[despairing optimist]

23. The only thing in SS headed for bankruptcy is the argument * makes

It is nowhere near as bankrupt as his economic and foreign policies, and they are bankrupting the treasury as he intends them to. But when someone tries to starve a beast, he usually gets bitten if not devoured himself.

This will be an interesting year.

[Rainscents]

25. I can't stand watching him!!! I want to vomit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[radwriter0555]

26. well he won't be lying, with his hands in the till, it WILL be bankrupt...

what's the problem? For once bush is truthing!

[stevebreeze]

27. the 'bankruptcy' lie is the inability of the regular budget to pay back

the OVERPAYMENT of payroll taxes due to the massive tax cuts for the rich.

[w4rma]

28. And he wants to make sure that it gets there. (nt)

[fortyfeetunder]

29. A scene from BOOGEYMAN

Only that type of a message would come from a booger. Trying to scare people. Dipshit.

[stevebreeze]

31. I love the options under privatization

I can die early and leave the money to my kids or live long and in desperate poverty. I can't wait to decide.

[Rocky Top]

32. bush's misuse of Social Security funds

bush need's to pay back all the money he looted from Social Security Trust Fund.!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.mysan.de/international/article32407.html

Social Security Trust Fund Fraud May Become Bush & #039;s Watergate, Suggests Author of 'The Looting of Social Security '

WINTER HAVEN, Fla., Feb. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Economist and author Allen W. Smith, Ph.D., argues that the biggest obstacle to getting clear debate on the Social Security problem is the misinformation that continues to be spread by the AARP and others who argue that the trust fund holds real assets. "It is amazing how many people, including some Social Security experts, still just don't get it!" Smith said. "Weisbrot and Baker continue to spread the myth that, 'The Social Security trust fund will have more than $3.7 trillion in today's dollars in 2018.' Unless there is a change in policy, the trust fund will not have even $1 of real assets in 2018!"

Smith points out that David Walker, Comptroller General of the Government Accounting Office (GAO), while speaking at a Washington luncheon, co-hosted by Centrists.Org and the Alliance for Worker Retirement Security on January 21, 2005, said, "The left hand owes the right hand, and that has legal, political and moral significance. But it doesn't have any economic significance whatsoever. There are no stocks or bonds or real estate in the trust fund. It has nothing of real value to draw down."
"If the Comptroller General of the GAO says there is 'nothing of real value' in the trust fund, then there is nothing of real value," Smith said. "So what happened to the $3.7 trillion that so many people believe will be in the trust fund in 2018, or the $1.6 trillion that is supposed to already be in the trust fund today? The government has 'borrowed' it and made no provision for repayment of this debt."
The Social Security surplus generated by the 1983 payroll tax increase was supposed to be used to pay down the public debt. This would have been accomplished by purchasing regular marketable Treasury bonds in the financial markets. If this had been done, the trust fund would contain real assets and it would be able to pay full benefits until 2042. However, Smith maintains that President George H.W. Bush began using the money as if it were general revenue, and non-marketable special issue government securities were issued. Smith says that President Clinton continued this practice, so every cent of the Social Security surplus that flowed in under both Bush Senior and Clinton was spent. This misuse of Social Security funds became a major campaign issue in 2000, and both George W. Bush and Al Gore pledged to end the looting. President Bush repeatedly promised not to touch the Social Security money. Finally, in his first State of the Union address, delivered on February 27, 2001, Bush said, "To make sure the retirement savings of America's seniors are not diverted to any other program, my budget protects all $2.6 trillion of the Social Security surplus for Social Security, and for Social Security alone."
In casting their votes in the 2000 election, the American people, whether they voted for Gore or for Bush, were voting for a candidate who had solemnly pledged repeatedly that no Social Security money would be used for non-Social Security purposes. Smith argues that George W. Bush violated both that pledge and federal law when he spent every dollar of the $509 billion in Social Security surplus that was generated during his first term. "He continues to violate his pledge, and the law, each and every day as he spends the approximately $400 million in Social Security surplus that becomes available on a daily basis," said Smith.
Smith argues that the Bush privatization proposal is a Trojan horse to distract attention away from the looting of Social Security money. According to Smith, "Bush and Greenspan know that the government will face a major financial crisis beginning in 2018 when Social Security begins to run deficits, and the public discovers that there is nothing of value in the trust fund." Smith believes that "given the fact that Bush acknowledged the looting problem during the 2000 campaign, and made a solemn promise to the American people to end the practice, his misuse of Social Security money is a serious breach of the public trust," and Smith suggests that historians may refer to Bush's misuse of Social Security funds as "Bush's Watergate."
CONTACT: Barbara Rugel [phone] or Allen W. Smith [phone];
email: [e-mail]
Website: http://www.lootingsocialsecurity.com /
Available Topic Expert(s): For information on the listed expert(s), click appropriate link. Allen W. Smith, Ph.D. http://www.profnet.com/ud_public.jsp?userid=350721
Quelle: Allen W. Smith

[LynnTheDem]

33. In other words, bush to keep on LYING.

So damned ironic how rightwingnuts claim they despise liars...yet they fully support one of the biggest liars ever come down the pike.