Sumamba Buwhan
03-09-2004, 00:56
So should we all stop paying into social security?
President Declares "Ownership Society"
Tells Convention He's Ordered Invasion of Social Security Trust Fund
by Greg Palast
September 2, 2004 17:06
[New York] Of all the bone-headed, whacky, breathtakingly threatening
schemes George W. Bush is trying to sell us in his acceptance speech
tonight is something he and his handlers call, "the Ownership Society."
Sounds cool, "ownership." Everyone gets a piece of the action.
Everyone's a winner as the economy zooms. All boats rise.
Sure. Behind the hooray-for-free-enterprise crapola is that dog-eared
game-plan to siphon off Social Security revenues to pay for making
Bush's tax cuts for the rich permanent.
Here's what the President has in mind. Social Security is an insurance
plan. You pay in, you get back. But it's hard to get your money back
when there's a war where the Clinton surplus used to be. It's not the
war on terror, or the war in Iraq, though Lord knows those have cost us
a bundle with nothing to show for all the lost loot. I'm talking about
the class war that Dubya and his Dick Cheney have waged on the average
working person.
We're talking an economic Pearl Harbor here. While firemen and
policemen went running into falling buildings, the Bushmen were preparing to
relieve some gazillionaires, such as say, the Bush family, of the need
to pay the taxes that the rest of us pay. Work as a teacher, you pay
Social Security and income taxes on every darn penny. Sit on your yacht
and speculate in the stock market casino and you are off the hook on
taxes on the "capital gains."
Bill Clinton proposed putting his big surpluses into a Social Security
"lock-box" for that predictable rainy day. But tonight, Bush instead
proposes to give the stock-options class a boost by lopping off a chunk
of Social Security insurance revenue for gambling in the stock market.
He had this same idea in 2000. If he'd had his way on his inauguration
day, the average "owner" in America, investing in the stock market,
would be 7% poorer, many flat busted. Some "security." Happy elderly
"owners" would be hunting for lunch in the garbage cans under Madison
Square Garden.
Here's the latest report from the front lines of the class war: The
World Bank reports the USA has more millionaires than ever -- we'll see
them at the Garden tonight. Median household income's down -- most of us
are median -- while the bottom has fallen out for those at the bottom.
Our poorest 20% have seen incomes drop by a fifth. America's upper one
percent now own 53% of all the shares in the market.
And now the uppers want to crack open your retirement piggy bank, cut
some of your retirement benefits, then "allow" you to give them the
remainder of your money to fund their latest stock float schemes.
If betting trillions on stock market ponies doesn't produce a big win,
what does Mr. Bush propose to do with all the hungry old folk? I
think I heard George say, "Let them eat Enron certificates."
And the future market fall, Mr. President, is a slam-dunk certainty.
Let's do the math. OK, class, we all buy stock this afternoon to fund
our retirement. In fifteen years, baby-boomers are ready to kick back,
take it easy and retire on the stock they're about to sell. Did I say,
"SELL"? And HOW. Around 2020, tens of millions of "owners" will be
selling their shares … to whom? CRRRRASH!
A deliberate policy of aiming for another 1929 is appropriate for the
top-hat and pinky-ring party of Herbert Hoover.
The big problem is that supposedly non-partisan and even Democratic
poobahs are rushing to "reform" Social Security. We have Alan Greenspan,
who has barely a word to say about the multi-trillion dollar deficit
wrought by Mr. Bush's tax cuts, yet is already warning about some
disaster in Social Security based on "trends." Well, if we go by his own
trend, the Fed chief will soon be marrying a 12-year-old Girl Scout.
Hey, Alan, back to Economics 101 for you. As the boomers hit
retirement age, we're going to need added borrowing for transfer payments like
Social Security to maintain purchasing power to keep the economy alive
while millions of old folk dump assets.
Listen, Mr. President, we had an "ownership" society once before.
Luckily, it came to an end when Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation
Proclamation.
President Declares "Ownership Society"
Tells Convention He's Ordered Invasion of Social Security Trust Fund
by Greg Palast
September 2, 2004 17:06
[New York] Of all the bone-headed, whacky, breathtakingly threatening
schemes George W. Bush is trying to sell us in his acceptance speech
tonight is something he and his handlers call, "the Ownership Society."
Sounds cool, "ownership." Everyone gets a piece of the action.
Everyone's a winner as the economy zooms. All boats rise.
Sure. Behind the hooray-for-free-enterprise crapola is that dog-eared
game-plan to siphon off Social Security revenues to pay for making
Bush's tax cuts for the rich permanent.
Here's what the President has in mind. Social Security is an insurance
plan. You pay in, you get back. But it's hard to get your money back
when there's a war where the Clinton surplus used to be. It's not the
war on terror, or the war in Iraq, though Lord knows those have cost us
a bundle with nothing to show for all the lost loot. I'm talking about
the class war that Dubya and his Dick Cheney have waged on the average
working person.
We're talking an economic Pearl Harbor here. While firemen and
policemen went running into falling buildings, the Bushmen were preparing to
relieve some gazillionaires, such as say, the Bush family, of the need
to pay the taxes that the rest of us pay. Work as a teacher, you pay
Social Security and income taxes on every darn penny. Sit on your yacht
and speculate in the stock market casino and you are off the hook on
taxes on the "capital gains."
Bill Clinton proposed putting his big surpluses into a Social Security
"lock-box" for that predictable rainy day. But tonight, Bush instead
proposes to give the stock-options class a boost by lopping off a chunk
of Social Security insurance revenue for gambling in the stock market.
He had this same idea in 2000. If he'd had his way on his inauguration
day, the average "owner" in America, investing in the stock market,
would be 7% poorer, many flat busted. Some "security." Happy elderly
"owners" would be hunting for lunch in the garbage cans under Madison
Square Garden.
Here's the latest report from the front lines of the class war: The
World Bank reports the USA has more millionaires than ever -- we'll see
them at the Garden tonight. Median household income's down -- most of us
are median -- while the bottom has fallen out for those at the bottom.
Our poorest 20% have seen incomes drop by a fifth. America's upper one
percent now own 53% of all the shares in the market.
And now the uppers want to crack open your retirement piggy bank, cut
some of your retirement benefits, then "allow" you to give them the
remainder of your money to fund their latest stock float schemes.
If betting trillions on stock market ponies doesn't produce a big win,
what does Mr. Bush propose to do with all the hungry old folk? I
think I heard George say, "Let them eat Enron certificates."
And the future market fall, Mr. President, is a slam-dunk certainty.
Let's do the math. OK, class, we all buy stock this afternoon to fund
our retirement. In fifteen years, baby-boomers are ready to kick back,
take it easy and retire on the stock they're about to sell. Did I say,
"SELL"? And HOW. Around 2020, tens of millions of "owners" will be
selling their shares … to whom? CRRRRASH!
A deliberate policy of aiming for another 1929 is appropriate for the
top-hat and pinky-ring party of Herbert Hoover.
The big problem is that supposedly non-partisan and even Democratic
poobahs are rushing to "reform" Social Security. We have Alan Greenspan,
who has barely a word to say about the multi-trillion dollar deficit
wrought by Mr. Bush's tax cuts, yet is already warning about some
disaster in Social Security based on "trends." Well, if we go by his own
trend, the Fed chief will soon be marrying a 12-year-old Girl Scout.
Hey, Alan, back to Economics 101 for you. As the boomers hit
retirement age, we're going to need added borrowing for transfer payments like
Social Security to maintain purchasing power to keep the economy alive
while millions of old folk dump assets.
Listen, Mr. President, we had an "ownership" society once before.
Luckily, it came to an end when Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation
Proclamation.