Bush Seeks $1 Trillion Debt Boost

[CShine]

President Bush, saying the economic recovery is firmly in place, yesterday proposed adding $1 trillion to the national debt to fund the cost of shifting to a partially privatized Social Security system. The massive increase in debt, coming on top of a $7 trillion national debt that is growing by about $500 billion a year, adds controversy to what was already promising to be a difficult reform to get enacted. The debt increase is acknowledged in the 2004 Economic Report of the President, which was penned by the White House Council of Economic Advisers and released yesterday.

The Social Security privatization plan has largely disappeared from Mr. Bush's speeches and budget blueprints, although it was a major campaign platform in the 2000 election. It was judged to be politically palatable at the time because it would draw on some of the government's large projected surpluses to finance transition costs from the current government-funded pension system.

But those surplus projections have disappeared and been replaced by record federal deficits, and Mr. Bush had not previously revealed how he would fund the plan, which would enable workers to put some of their Social Security contributions into private accounts that are invested in stocks and other securities.

Because Social Security relies on current payroll taxes to fund today's retirees, the question has been how to divert money to private accounts and still meet the pension program's obligations. The economic report for the first time tentatively provides the answer — with borrowing — as well as a rationale for the decision that asserts that adding the cost of privatizing the program to the national debt would have little detrimental effect on the economy or workers.


http://www.washtimes.com/business/20040209-114428-9699r.htm

[mhr]

1. Can It Get Any Worse? Sorry, Stupid Question. Yes It Can! ABB!

eom

[Lorien]

8. Diebold really has things locked up for Junior

don't they? Otherwise, there's NO WAY BushCo could be comfortable saying and doing the dumbass things they have in the past few weeks!

(edit; meant to reply to original message-sorry)!

[Just Me]

20. Surely,...since this will further disenfranchise part of his "base",...

,...he is already finding a slippery floor with the conservative and the *ahem* paleos (as the neocon lot has so eloquently named them).

[teryang]

2. Completely bonkers

Keep this story on page one.

[neverforget]

3. Sweet! My unborn child gets some more debt to pay off! Better her

than me though because "I got mine"! <sarcasm> :grr: :argh: :grr: :argh: :grr: :argh: :grr: :argh: :grr: :argh:

[CO Liberal]

4. He Really Needs a 50-Point I.Q. Boost

:-)

[arcane1]

5. god, I was so sure this would be form the Onion...

and while I'd put the Moonie Times on a credibility level just below Onion, it's still, er, interesting, to see this printed there..

[UpInArms]

16. glad it's in the Moonie Times

because then you know that the Freeps will read it.

Wonder how that makes them feel about their beloved POS.

[RobertSeattle]

6. No more tax cuts until the budget is balanced!

No brainer.

[UpInArms]

7. this will mark $2 Trillion in increased debt

since he assumed (and I do mean assumed) office.

[snippy]

21. Actually, it will mark an increase in the debt limit of over $2.4 trillion

The first increase was $450 billion in June, 2002 (Bush asked for $750 billion). The second was $984 billion in May, 2003.

[Karenina]

9. Was it Mengele that said

the more we do to you, the less you believe we are doing it...

[Bandit]

10. It is a sign that he knows he is toast

No sane person would propose such a thing unless they knew it would be their last opportunity to do so. Maybe I should have re-phrased that because I certainly didn't mean to imply that he is in fact sane.

[htuttle]

11. He's. Going. To. Borrow. One. Trillion. Dollars.

One Trillion Dollars. And We have to pay it back.

AND he's going to wreck Social Security in the process.

One Trillion Dollars (I don't know why, but it wants to be capitalized) is a mind-boggling amount of money. And he's going to fucking BORROW it and lay it on the fucking stock market or the bond market, right!? CRAP! This country is getting Arbusto-ed!

[Fargin Ice Hole]

12. WTF????

It's going to cost 1 trillion Dollars just to shift what????? To gamble our Future away? Ya thats just what I want to do spend a trillion bucks and then trust the market with with my fuqin retirment money!!!!!! especially after the last couple of years of proof the market is such a sound investment Ha!!! Fuqin insanity!!!!

[lovedems]

13. I always thought it was because ot the market performance that the

plan was shelved, not the actual cost. I am sure all of those people (like my mother) who lost alot of her retirement when the stock market dropped would just love this plan! Well, I have heard that Wall Street are big contributors to the bu$hco. I guess it is payback time, to the tune of 1 Trillion Dollars! (I wonder if Halliburton is jealous)

[samsingh]

14. after that idea screws up

shrubby will say that he didn't really want a debt increase. we all misunderstood.

[Ramsey]

15. I thought I was reading The Onion

Really, that's how laughable this is. Does Bush think he is shoring up his base with this idiocy? They are already peeved about the already record deficit. :shrug:

[arcane1]

17. I guess his TRUE base will be the ones loaning us the money

and cashing in on the tax-free interest

[UpInArms]

18. would that be

China or Japan?

[Art_from_Ark]

24. In the short run, at least, Japan has been losing money

on the Treasuries it bought last year-- about 5 trillion yen worth, or nearly $50 billion at today's rate. However, that 5 trillion yen was used to buy significantly higher valued dollars.

I do not know if this 5 trillion yen includes dollar securities that were sold to private investors, but if so, then a lot of such investors have been burned. While Japanese banks were eager to sell dollar securities at 117 yen/dollar, they are hesitant to recommend the same securities now at a 10% discount of 105 yen/dollar.

[snippy]

19. The Bush administration is lying about this.

I know, I know, that may seem hard to believe. But they are lying about the reason for increasing the debt limit. The current debt ceiling is just under $7.4 trillion and the current debt is $7.09 trillion. That is a difference of around $300 billion. This years deficit is projected to exceed $500 billion. In June of 2003, shortly after the last increase in the debt ceiling, a Treasury Department official said that the new ceiling could be reached as soon as April, 2004 or as late as October, 2004. To say that the currently proposed increase is to allow for privatization of Social Security is a lie.

There is no subject so serious,somber or shallow that Bush wil not lie about it.

[teryang]

27. Actually, if any portion of FICA revenue

...is privatized, they would be diverting money from Defense department/defense contractor expenditures. Hence the need to increase the deficit even further to go out into the debt markets and borrow more for the defense department as social security revenues will be inadequate to cover the massive defense spending increases that directly enrich his family, cronies and accomplices in the BFEE.

[snippy]

30. They are not going to use the increased debt to privatize Social Security.

They are lying about that. They are going to use the increased debt for operating expenses, including defense, pork, interest payments and everything else, just like they have in the past and just like the Treasury Department said they would last summer. Besides, one trillion dollars would cover only a few years of the cost of a partial privatization of Social Security. This story is a complete and total lie except for the fact that the debt limit needs to be increased.

Bush is lying about this in an attempt to placate his base.

[PA Democrat]

32. Greenspan & O'Neill's Calculations

Ron Suskind's book, "The Price of Loyalty" discusses how Greenspan & O'Neill originally came up with the figure of $1 trillion to privatize social security.

Their plan was to allow people that were I think 37 years old or younger to invest in private savings accounts. Everyone else over the age limit would pay into the traditional social security fund and collect from the social security trust fund. The $1 trillion was to cover the funds going into the private accounts which would no longer be available to pay for ongoing SS obligations to retirees.

Their plan was also based upon a BALANCED BUDGET which is no longer true. It would take a LOT more than $1 trillion now with Bush's crushing deficits.

[snippy]

34. The $1 trillion is a phony number.

To cover ongoing government expenditures without privatizing any part of Social Security Bush wants the debt ceiling raised by $1 trillion. This has been a matter of public record for at least 8 months. To keep his base from gnawing his nuts off Bush is claiming that the $1 trillion increase is needed to partially privatize Social Security. Bush is lying about the reason for increasing the debt limit.

The actual cost anyone cites for the partial privatization of Social Security is a function of one wild assed guess applied over time. Time is the variable which has the greatest affect. Any given wild assed guess applied over a different number of years will result in wildly different estimates of the cost.

[PA Democrat]

37. I Agree

After all, this administration is masterful at bait and switch.

Also, I'm sure that Greenspan and O'Neill made MANY assumptions when they came up with the $1 trillion figure that are already no longer true.

[scarface2004]

22. a trillion here..a trillion there...

pretty soon you re talkin about real money!!!

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

23. A trillion dollars

would be a stack of thousand-dollar bills 67 miles high.


It would be a stack of one-dollar bills almost 3000 miles high.


Iow, that's some heavy-duty bread.

[Art_from_Ark]

25. Wouldn't a stack of $1 dollar bills

be 1000 times higher than an equivalent stack of $1000 bills?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

38. You'd think, wouldn't you?

:shrug:


Take it up with my source:
http://www.u-grenoble3.fr/ciesimsa/ateliers/a0/art0-1.html

Here's a visual site:
http://www.crunchweb.net/87billion/








Suffice it to say, we're not talking about couch cushion money.

[Beetwasher]

26. Why Stop At A Trillion?

Hell, I'd go for a whole Googleplex! (sp?)

[opihimoimoi]

28. By the time Bush goes, it will be 7.9 Trillion National Debt

This sucks up 14% of our GNP.... only for the interest.

This is one of the reasons we now have a weak dollar. Euro gained 30 percent and the Yen 20%. Bush has fucked it up so bad, he cannot spin his way out. He is Toast.

[snippy]

29. The only reason interest payments are that low is because of low rates.

The shit will really hit the fan when interest rates rise again.

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[llmart]

33. Every day...

I wake up thinking it can't get any worse, and lo and behold, it does. I think I have exhausted the possible list of words to describe how awful this administration is and how desperately we need to get him out before any more damage is done to our country.

[enki23]

35. the bush administration hates america

their actions make this very clear.

[moondust]

36. Robbing the grandkids.

Saddling future generations with massive debt denies them the right to make their own decisions and contributions. They can look forward to paying for Bush's epic mistakes for as long as they live. How f'ing depressing.