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[Incognito]

Via Atrios and Kos

"A lot of people in America think there is a trust -- that we take your money in payroll taxes and then we hold it for you and then when you retire, we give it back to you," Bush said later in a speech at the University of West Virginia at Parkersburg. "But that's not the way it works. There is no trust fund, just IOUs that I saw firsthand,"

If the 'full faith and credit' of the United States means 'just IOUs' then our entire financial system will come tumbling down," said Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., the senior Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee

http://www.fxstreet.com/nou/noticies/afx/noticia.asp?pv_noticia=1112732412-e04a0f08-40683

Minority Leader Pelosi chimes in:

This is the first time that a President of the United States has declared that we, the United States Government, will not put the full faith and credit of the federal government behind the Social Security trust fund. What this President is saying is, we have two kinds of debt. Let's see how we get the debt first. It is in deficit spending, so we have to go borrow in order to keep the government going.

So where does he borrow? He borrows from the Chinese. He borrows from the Japanese. He borrows from the trust fund. And what he is saying now to the American worker: "We will honor our debt to the Chinese and the Japanese, but we are treating you differently. We are not honoring our debt to you." These are funds that workers and their employers put in the account to have a trust fund to cover any shortfall that would be there to cover their retirement benefits. And this President is openly declaring that he has no intention of paying the trust fund back what he has taken from it.

http://blog.dccc.org/mt/archives/002556.html

 

[kumanoki]

Borrowing from the Japanese= BAD IDEA

"A favorite mantra of economics experts is to say that Japan's debt is of less concern than that of other countries because it owes its debt mostly to its own people.While this is true, the fact remains that the Japanese people must repay the debt through taxes, and the burden will be crushing. By 2005, according to Gavin McCormack, the government debt will run '1,400 trillion yen, 11 million yen per head (say, two years' salary for an average worker). To repay such a sum with interest would call for a tax of 1.7 million yen per year every year for sixty years from every working citizen."
- Alex Kerr, Dogs and Demons

Japan has no money.

 

[Space Age Playboy]

What a joke. Rangel and Pelosi trying to make a something out of nothing, blasting away with their ridiculous partisan rhetoric. Trying to make something out of nothing.

There are plenty of things Bush has done wrong to criticize, calling a spade a spade shouldn't be one of them. He was correcting a lot of peoples' misunderstandings of how Social Security works. The government isn't just saving your money and giving it to you later.

 

[impirius]

Yes, Bush said that the US won't honor Social Security. Also, Al Gore said that he invented the internet!

YAY RHETORIC

 

[HyperionX]

What a joke. Rangel and Pelosi trying to make a something out of nothing, blasting away with their ridiculous partisan rhetoric. Trying to make something out of nothing.

There are plenty of things Bush has done wrong to criticize, calling a spade a spade shouldn't be one of them. He was correcting a lot of peoples' misunderstandings of how Social Security works. The government isn't just saving your money and giving it to you later.

Actually you're wrong. SS does save your money, just in the form of treasury bonds. Those "IOUs" are worth just as much as they say they are. To say otherwise is a lie.

 

[Space Age Playboy]

It's a Ponzi scheme. There isn't enough money. Faith and credit, in other words an IOU from the government.

 

[Mr. Lemming]

Ah good old-fashioned FUD.

 

[HyperionX]

Uh-oh, Bush violated the constitution!

Amendment XIV
Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any state shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

:lol:lol:lol

 

[videogamer]

Uh-oh, Bush violated the constitution!



:lol:lol:lol

Hmmm... that's a pretty strong accusation. Do you think it's good grounds for impeachment?

 

[Drensch]

He was correcting a lot of peoples' misunderstandings of how Social Security works.

Bush is the last fucker in the universe that should be correcting anyone about anything.

 

[Macam]

I'm not against partial privatisation of SS necessarily, but Bush's plans and timing offers are miserable. There are more pressing matters and I look forward to the day his SS plan gets shelved.

 

[Inumaru]

Actually you're wrong. SS does save your money, just in the form of treasury bonds. Those "IOUs" are worth just as much as they say they are. To say otherwise is a lie.

That's true, but only as long as there's money to pay those bonds when they're due. Which is the point Bush was trying (very poorly) to make, I think. A bond really is only an "IOU", it's just a very official one.

 

[Hitokage]

That's true, but only as long as there's money to pay those bonds when they're due. Which is the point Bush was trying (very poorly) to make, I think. A bond really is only an "IOU", it's just a very official one.

If you practice Borrow and Spend politics you can quite easily end up with government not having the money at all, but if it weren't for the gaping hole in the federal budget SS would be having a surplus right now.