Economy
See other Economy Articles
Title: The right's smoke and mirrors scam about Social Security--it ain't broke (unless China is too)
Source:
Angry Bear
URL Source: http://www.angrybearblog.com/2011/1 ... ogspot%2FHzoh+%28Angry+Bear%29
Published: Nov 12, 2011
Author: Linda Beale
Post Date: 2011-11-13 09:11:13 by lucysmom
Keywords: None
Views: 15088
Comments: 28
The right's smoke and mirrors scam about Social Security--it ain't broke (unless China is too) We've noted in these postings the growing inequality between rich and the rest of us in America, and that is the appropriate backdrop against which to investigate further the right's smoke-and-mirrors scams about tax policy and earned benefits. Let me remind you with Kevin Drum's Mother Jones article on The Price of Plutocracy: "For all practical purposes, every year about $700 billion in income is being sucked directly out of the hands of the poor and the middle class and shoveled into the hands of the rich." (That sentence is illustrated with a great chart, with data drawn from Joseph Hacker of Yale and Paul Pierson of Berkeley, the authors of Winner-Take-All Politics, a book I highly recommend.) The national debate about deficits has been part of a relentless push by the right to reduce as much as possible the New Deal earned benefit programs of Social Security and Medicare. The right twists the facts to suit the arguments it wants to make... snip ...The right uses "personal responsibility" and "entitlements" as though they refer to two non-intersecting worlds, whereas in fact the opposite is true. Workers pay into Social Security to support current workers who paid into it in the past. The trust fund was established, and amended with a good deal of actuarial research under Reagan in 1983, with the knowledge that the baby boom generation would be passing through and create a bulge of benefit needs and that US birth rates tended to be smaller now than they were a century ago. In other words. what is happening now in terms of the baby boomer population reaching retirement age and the decline in US birthrates was exactly the information on which the Social Security changes made in the 1980s were predicated. Either we believe that these kinds of predictions are reasonable (in which case it is utterly silly to raise nightmare scenarioes about bankruptcy, because there is nothing of the sort) or we believe that it is impossible to predict for sure what will happen (in which case it is utterly silly to raise nightmare scenarios about Social Security bankruptcy, because GDP could grow just a little faster than predicted, easing all future problems, or boomer needs could grow just a little less than predicted, easing all future problems). Either way, the crisis-bell ringing being done by the right as a way to attribute deficits to Social Security is a smoke and mirrors scam. Angry Bear">Click for Full Text!
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: Not Badeye, A K A Stone, Fred Mertz, Godwinson, go65, war, no gnu taxes, Hide Your Eyes Eric, Skip Intro, ferret mike, jwpegler, mininggold, brian s, mcgowanjm (#0)
OK bell ringers, have at it.
Wall Street owns the country…Our laws are the output of a system which clothes rascals in robes and honesty in rags. The [political] parties lie to us and the political speakers mislead us…Money rules. Mary Elizabeth Lease, 1890
The new deal was clearly unconstitutional. Do you deny that fact?
Just because previous generation were conned into socialist insecurity. That doesn't mean that the new generations owe them a penny. It is a violation of natural law to make people who weren't even born to pay for the mistakes of long dead people.
Here is a solution for social security. Some people have cried that we are over populated. Some people have had abortions. Some people have claimed others have a right to abortion. Then along came kevorkian championing the right to suicide. I think that the people I mentioned should be the ones to voluntarily commit suicide for the benefit of the rest of us. If they wont do it voluntarily maybe they should have it done involuntarily. File this under you reap what you sow.
And that is a Ponzi scheme, and Ponzi scheme's always crash when more people are owed than there are contributing, like now. That's why Social Security is broke, that's why unionized corporation and government retirement systems drive them to bankruptcy, and that's why Bernie Madoff is in jail.
It is a violation of natural law to make people who weren't even born to pay for the mistakes of long dead people. Since no one can agree on what laws are 'natural' we will just have to go by the ones voted on and passed by the elected representatives of the people of the US.
"ROTFLMAO... Perfect! She longs... for someone to Teabag her. a man that squats on top of a women's face and lowers his genitals into her mouth during sex, known as "teabagging" She aches for it"... ~~~JWpegler. Head Tea Bagger and Tea Party supporter extraordinaire, explicitly expressing his fantasies in public about other posters.
Just because liberals are stupid, lazy and like killing babies. That doesn't mean that normal people have to lower their standards to that of a leftist POS. You have a natural right to the fruits of your labor. If I work for something it is mine. Not yours. Comprende?
So if the R's take over and pass a law to kill all D's then it is ok by your own definition. That was a stupid statement you made.
You have a natural right to the fruits of your labor. If I work for something it is mine. Not yours. Comprende? I guess you must have your own country. Oh well, I hope you can defend it from the Chinese hordes
"ROTFLMAO... Perfect! She longs... for someone to Teabag her. a man that squats on top of a women's face and lowers his genitals into her mouth during sex, known as "teabagging" She aches for it"... ~~~JWpegler. Head Tea Bagger and Tea Party supporter extraordinaire, explicitly expressing his fantasies in public about other posters.
That was a stupid statement you made. We have a system of checks and balances, so far it's worked pretty well.
"ROTFLMAO... Perfect! She longs... for someone to Teabag her. a man that squats on top of a women's face and lowers his genitals into her mouth during sex, known as "teabagging" She aches for it"... ~~~JWpegler. Head Tea Bagger and Tea Party supporter extraordinaire, explicitly expressing his fantasies in public about other posters.
That is not what you said. You said we would have to go by what our representatives passed.
We do have elections, don't we? and a Supreme Court?
"ROTFLMAO... Perfect! She longs... for someone to Teabag her. a man that squats on top of a women's face and lowers his genitals into her mouth during sex, known as "teabagging" She aches for it"... ~~~JWpegler. Head Tea Bagger and Tea Party supporter extraordinaire, explicitly expressing his fantasies in public about other posters.
Some would say no.
Only those who demand instant gratification. You will have a chance to vote out your favorite boogeyman next year.
"ROTFLMAO... Perfect! She longs... for someone to Teabag her. a man that squats on top of a women's face and lowers his genitals into her mouth during sex, known as "teabagging" She aches for it"... ~~~JWpegler. Head Tea Bagger and Tea Party supporter extraordinaire, explicitly expressing his fantasies in public about other posters.
Only those who demand instant gratification. The supreme court has bastardized the commerce clause. As long as they keep that fraud going we are not a constitutional republic. Which is fine by folks like you.
You have no idea what I think about the commerce clause. But your party for almost fourteen years had the power to do something about it and didn't. They must like it too.
"ROTFLMAO... Perfect! She longs... for someone to Teabag her. a man that squats on top of a women's face and lowers his genitals into her mouth during sex, known as "teabagging" She aches for it"... ~~~JWpegler. Head Tea Bagger and Tea Party supporter extraordinaire, explicitly expressing his fantasies in public about other posters.
That is an opinion, not a fact.
Wall Street owns the country…Our laws are the output of a system which clothes rascals in robes and honesty in rags. The [political] parties lie to us and the political speakers mislead us…Money rules. Mary Elizabeth Lease, 1890
On the other hand it would be unethical to deny benefits to a generation that has paid for them.
Wall Street owns the country…Our laws are the output of a system which clothes rascals in robes and honesty in rags. The [political] parties lie to us and the political speakers mislead us…Money rules. Mary Elizabeth Lease, 1890
File this under you reap what you sow. Do you want to harvest the field you just planted?
Wall Street owns the country…Our laws are the output of a system which clothes rascals in robes and honesty in rags. The [political] parties lie to us and the political speakers mislead us…Money rules. Mary Elizabeth Lease, 1890
You obviously like the Kool-Aid; have another glass.
Wall Street owns the country…Our laws are the output of a system which clothes rascals in robes and honesty in rags. The [political] parties lie to us and the political speakers mislead us…Money rules. Mary Elizabeth Lease, 1890
Since no one can agree on what laws are 'natural' we will just have to go by the ones voted on and passed by the elected representatives of the people of the US. If natural law is what happens in nature, then future generations do indeed pay for the mistakes of long dead people. ...visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.
Wall Street owns the country…Our laws are the output of a system which clothes rascals in robes and honesty in rags. The [political] parties lie to us and the political speakers mislead us…Money rules. Mary Elizabeth Lease, 1890
No it wouldn't. They are the ones who fell for it. We need a clean break.
I was just kidding. I was just using the logic of a liberal and carrying it out to its conclusion.
No, you were using what the radical right fantasizes about liberal logic.
Wall Street owns the country…Our laws are the output of a system which clothes rascals in robes and honesty in rags. The [political] parties lie to us and the political speakers mislead us…Money rules. Mary Elizabeth Lease, 1890
Loonymom: You obviously like the Kool-Aid; have another glass. DUMMY DwarF: ...I'm eating a meatball... "Whenver the dwarf sees something negative about a Democrat, he tries to change the topic of the thread to something else. Usually a personal attack, followed by mutterings about correct 'grammar' 'spelling' whatever. Anything he can think of to avoid a discussion about a Democrat screwing up or looking bad. It's a decade long pattern." --Badeye observation-- Wow, that was original. But then what could one reasonably expect from those who repeat spin without knowing what the words mean.
Wall Street owns the country…Our laws are the output of a system which clothes rascals in robes and honesty in rags. The [political] parties lie to us and the political speakers mislead us…Money rules. Mary Elizabeth Lease, 1890
It's a simple thing, really. You're a fucking idiot. You've NO understanding of economics, and why it matters to reality. Instead, YOU prefer the poisoned kool-aid, and bitterly accuse those of us who know better, that by virtue of the fact that we refuse to drink, WE are poisoning ourselves. How much more fucked up can you possibly BE? Words DO mean things. They have specific meanings. For you and your useful-idiot leftist ilk, the meaning of words change according to your whims. Stated another way, when the truth is not palatable, you prefer to imagine a new "truth" (whatever bullshit you dreamed up in that empty little skull of yours), and then pretend that your imaginary truth IS reality. You're DELUSIONAL. You're SICK. You need HELP. Oh, and with regard to the "article" you posted (idiotic bullshit from a nothing blog), the FACT is that Social Security is BANKRUPT. Your wishful-thinking alters this fact NOT AT ALL. You'll NEVER see all the money you put in. It's GONE. SPENT. STOLEN by politicians over the last five decades. And even now, I'm FORCED to pay into the SS system- organized theft to take money out of my wallet, and food out MY childrens' mouths- to feed your FAT, LAZY, UNDESERVING PARASITE ASS. So instead of complaining about Social Security being broke, you can at least say "THANK YOU," before you take money stolen from me and MY family.
DUMMY DwarF: ...I'm eating a meatball... "Whenver the dwarf sees something negative about a Democrat, he tries to change the topic of the thread to something else. Usually a personal attack, followed by mutterings about correct 'grammar' 'spelling' whatever. Anything he can think of to avoid a discussion about a Democrat screwing up or looking bad. It's a decade long pattern." --Badeye observation-- Well said, sir, but a waste of time and effort. Sense talked to a libtard either goes in one ear and out the other or stuck in the shit that they use for brains and passed out with their next bowel movement.
...the crisis-bell ringing being done by the right as a way to attribute deficits to Social Security is a smoke and mirrors scam.
#2. To: lucysmom (#0)
The national debate about deficits has been part of a relentless push by the right to reduce as much as possible the New Deal
#3. To: lucysmom (#0)
Workers pay into Social Security to support current workers who paid into it in the past.
#4. To: lucysmom (#0)
what is happening now in terms of the baby boomer population reaching retirement age and the decline in US birthrates was exactly the information on which the Social Security changes made in the 1980s were predicated.
#5. To: lucysmom (#0)
Workers pay into Social Security to support current workers who paid into it in the past.
#6. To: A K A Stone (#3)
(Edited)
Just because previous generation were conned into socialist insecurity. That doesn't mean that the new generations owe them a penny.
#7. To: mininggold (#6)
Since no one can agree on what laws are 'natural' we will just have to go by the ones voted on and passed by representatives of the people of the US.
#8. To: mininggold (#6)
(Edited)
Since no one can agree on what laws are 'natural' we will just have to go by the ones voted on and passed by representatives of the people of the US.
#9. To: A K A Stone (#7)
(Edited)
Just because liberals are stupid, lazy and like killing babies. That doesn't mean that normal people have to lower their standards to that of a leftist POS.
#10. To: A K A Stone (#8)
So if the R's take over and pass a law to kill all D's then it is ok by your own definition.
#11. To: mininggold (#10)
We have a system of checks and balances, so far it's worked pretty well.
#12. To: A K A Stone (#11)
That is not what you said. You said we would have to go by what our representatives passed.
#13. To: mininggold (#12)
We do have elections, don't we? and a Supreme Court?
#14. To: A K A Stone (#13)
Some would say no.
#15. To: mininggold (#14)
Some would say no.
#16. To: A K A Stone (#15)
The supreme court has bastardized the commerce clause. As long as they keep that fraud going we are not a constitutional republic. Which is fine by folks like you.
#17. To: A K A Stone (#2)
#18. To: A K A Stone (#3)
It is a violation of natural law to make people who weren't even born to pay for the mistakes of long dead people.
#19. To: A K A Stone (#4)
I think that the people I mentioned should be the ones to voluntarily commit suicide for the benefit of the rest of us. If they wont do it voluntarily maybe they should have it done involuntarily.
#20. To: Happy Quanzaa (#5)
And that is a Ponzi scheme, and Ponzi scheme's always crash when more people are owed than there are contributing, like now. That's why Social Security is broke, that's why unionized corporation and government retirement systems drive them to bankruptcy, and that's why Bernie Madoff is in jail.
#21. To: mininggold, A K A Stone (#6)
It is a violation of natural law to make people who weren't even born to pay for the mistakes of long dead people.
#22. To: lucysmom (#18)
On the other hand it would be unethical to deny benefits to a generation that has paid for them.
#23. To: lucysmom (#19)
Do you want to harvest the field you just planted?
#24. To: A K A Stone (#23)
I was just kidding. I was just using the logic of a liberal and carrying it out to its conclusion.
#25. To: lucysmom (#20)
(Edited)
Happy Quanzaa: And that is a Ponzi scheme, and Ponzi scheme's always crash when more people are owed than there are contributing, like now. That's why Social Security is broke, that's why unionized corporation and government retirement systems drive them to bankruptcy, and that's why Bernie Madoff is in jail.
Capitalist Eric: Foreplay before the president's staff? 
#26. To: Capitalist Eric, Happy Quanzaa (#25)
Loonymom: You obviously like the Kool-Aid; have another glass.
#27. To: lucysmom (#26)
Capitalist Eric: Foreplay before the president's staff?
#28. To: Capitalist Eric, Loonymom (#27)
(Edited)
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]