Cato Institute Leads the Attack on Social Security

[McKenzie]

Never heard of this organisation before now. It has attracted funding from r/w think tanks.

<snip>

No organization is more responsible for the forced-march drive to privatize Social Security—stealing trillions of dollars of its funds for Wall Street accounts—than the Cato Institute, a multi-million dollar Washington, D.C. think tank. During the past 20 years, Cato has had more than a quarter of a billion dollars lavished on it in contributions by the most powerful Wall Street banks, and largest right-wing think tanks—led by the ultra-right-wing Koch group of foundations. Cato has spent this money on a host of projects intended to destroy the sovereign nation-state and implement fascist economic austerity. But the lion's share has gone into the privatization of Social Security.

<snip>

http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2005/site_packages/ss_privatization/3204dracula_cato.html

[burythehatchet]

1. get ready for the "Larouche is a wacko" avalanche

[McKenzie]

2. Thnx for forewarning me.

Sigh, the perils of not being American and posting on an American forum.

Don't shoot the messenger.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

5. Larouche is a wacko.

[burythehatchet]

8. sweeeet

:)

[candy]

3. The Cato Institute is very well known and well connected.

[ferg]

12. and very dishonest

Their specialty is producing dishonest papers "showing" things like Ronnie's tax cuts increasing revenue (if you ignore inflation, population growth, base-line productivity growth and the increased payroll taxes.)

[LiberallyInclined]

4. never heard of the Cato Institute???

very famous right-wing libertarian shills.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

6. The CATO institute actually created the program Bush is pushing

That's why...and John Stossel of ABC is their biggest mouthpiece...it would be nice to see how much dough CATO has paid him to push THEIR shit on the airwaves under the cover of "news reporter."

[Kolesar]

7. The world financial system is an advanced phase of disintegration

I did not know that! I read most of this article. I like the description of Cato creating sham-grassroots-front-organizations. Now back to the collapse:

Cato and its sister organization, the Institute for Policy Innovation, have written legislation introduced into Congress, calling for the diversion into an Individual Account of the full 6.2% payroll tax that a worker now pays into the Social Security Trust Fund. This Individual Account would provide (millionsof dollars) that Wall Street could use to save its endangered position. The world financial system is an advanced phase of disintegration, with crises in the derivatives market, Fannie Mae- and Freddie Mac-issued housing paper, the stock market, and so on. Bankers whose power relies on this failing financial system, are desperate to get their hands on a large stream of money to prop it up. The largest steady stream of cash is the U.S. Social Security system. The bankers' problem is that the money is not theirs, and legally, they can not get their hands onto a penny of it. Hence the "privatization" of Social Security, on a crash basis. Their strategy is to tell whatever lie is necessary, but get the money.

[burythehatchet]

9. to put it more simply

every ponzi scheme eventually collapses upon itself. The end of the gold standard was the beginning of the end of a sustainable economy. Especially in dubya's ewe nited states

[porkrind]

10. Cato Institute = GOP astroturfers

They pretend to be reporters and independent experts. They're always on CNN shilling for the * admin.

[tjwash]

11. The CATO institute citing "extensive studies"...

...showing social security is collapsing, is roughly akin to the CEO's of 500 major corporations citing "extensive studies" showing that they need to eliminate overtime pay.

[oasis]

13. Cato members would privatize their grandmothers if it was legal.

[tsuki]

14. Cato Institution, sifting through fact to prove a foregone conclusion.

American Anti-Intellectualism at its best.

[OneBlueSky]

15. Larouche is indeed a whacko . . . but he's also exceptionally . . .

well informed on many issues, particularly those dealing with the US corporate oligarchy . . . read his stuff with a cautious eye, but don't discount everything he says . . . there's truth in them thar whackos . . .