Pete Peterson lies on Lou Dobbs saying the Soc Sec Funds are an illusion

[papau]

Those bonds in the trust fund are only an illusion if all the other bonds handed out in funding the National Debt also have no value. Pete meant that tax must raise the funds used to redeem those bonds - but that is true of any government bond - only on Social Security does Bush want to pretend he has found a way to avoid raising taxes to pay for bonds - by killing Social Security.


http://mediamatters.org/items/200501130007

Privatization proponent Pete Peterson misrepresented Social Security trust fund

On the January 12 edition of CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, Concord Coalition president and Council on Foreign Relations board chairman Peter G. Peterson falsely claimed that the Social Security trust fund is "not funded" and that the U.S. government will have to borrow money, increase taxes, or cut benefits in order to finance Social Security benefits between 2018 and 2042. Peterson also misstated the current payroll tax rate used to fund the Social Security system, claiming it is 11 percent when it is 12.4 percent, split evenly between employer and employee.

Peterson stated:

The Social Security trust fund is what I call a fiscal oxymoron. It shouldn't be trusted and it's not funded. And whether you have one or not, you still have to go out and do the same thing -- three things. You either have to try to borrow the money, or you're going to increase taxes, or you are going to cut the benefits. Now, how much would you have to borrow? Preparing for this occasion, I asked the Concord people. In 2018, the system starts moving cash-flowed deficit. Between 2018 and 2042, we would have to borrow $5.4 trillion, in current dollars, to finance those deficits. Or if you want to increase taxes to pay for the benefits, taxes would have to go up from 11 percent of payroll to 18 .<snip?

<snip> As with all government bonds purchased by private or public entities, the government uses this money to partially finance its deficit spending. But Peterson is treating the trust fund's U.S. government bonds -- its assets, on which the U.S. owes payment -- as nonexistent, arguing that the trust fund must reimburse itself for the money it has invested in those bonds. Using Peterson's logic, if you lend your brother $1,000, he doesn't have any obligation to pay you back. You're out $1,000 and must recoup that money some other way.

[cosmicdot]

1. and, chairman of the Blackstone Group ...

wonder if the Blackstone Group, which has been referred to as a mirror group to The Carlyle Group, would benefit from privitization accounts?

did Dobbs ask him?

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-33,GGLD:en&q=peter+g%2E+peterson+and+blackstone+group

http://www.the-catbird-seat.net/BlackstoneGroup.htm

http://www.blackstone.com/

"a private investment banking firm"

"The company's Blackstone Alternative Asset Management unit handles $1 billion in hedge funds for pension giant CalPERS." http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Blackstone_Group

[Salviati]

2. What Dobbs should have immediately countered with:

Are you suggesting that the US is going to default on it's debt? If that's the case then we've got a much bigger crisis on our hands than SS...

[papau]

3. True - but Lou was sucking up to Pete! - and wanted the Medicare point

to be made more than anything else


:-)