One of Those "Link To Kos" days
What's a person to do when this stuff is just served on a platter for us?? Follow the
link to look at this total waste of taxpayer money - for kids to play in a computer-generated tsunami. Dear Lord, over 160 THOUSAND people died, and I have to move a seahorse? Just Awful...
From Kos: Bush Trying to Yank $250mm from NJ for Being Transparent
(From the Dailykos.com -
link here) This article deals with New Jersey trying to be upstanding, transparent and proactive when it comes to removing even the potential stench of corruption from the state contract bid process...apparently, Dubya has forgotten about that former finalist for veep in 2000, Gov. John Rowland of CT, er, make that John Rowland, convicted felon. ;o)
Social Security - There is no Crisis
The social security system is the most efficient govenment program to date. As I recall, it spends about 1% of its total outlays on overhead - the rest is available to be disbursed. The SSA itself claims that 99.8% of all claims are without problems - that is an astounding figure [chart is here, on p. 4 of the pdf]. The Bush administration is playing 3 Card Monty [again] by saying one thing in order to get another (See 9/11-Iraq, WMD-Iraq, NCLB, etc.). In this case, they want to rape SS in order to 'give' people private accounts. These accounts would add up to about 2% of someone's supposed SS payroll taxes. For a typical middle class person, that may add up to $700 per year. Somewhere between 2-3% will go to Wall Street to cover the costs (already minimally double what the USGov charges). And, of course, if the stock market crashes, you lose. You get nothing.
Fundamentally, Social Security is a compact between generations. I pay now to help my grandmother. And many others. SS is in mass surplus, and will be for the forseeable future, insomuch as one can prognisticate 75 years in the future. That, my friends, is pretty far away. Here is what the Social Security Adminstration defines "FICA" as (FICA is the acronym that shows up on your paycheck statement) from their webpage here:
Social Security payroll taxes are collected under authority of the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA). The payroll taxes are sometimes even called "FICA taxes."
Additionally here is the perfect quote from the federal goverment about what SS is all about:
The payroll taxes collected for Social Security are of course taxes, but they can also be described as contributions to the social insurance system that is Social Security. Hence the name "Federal Insurance Contributions Act."
SS is a social insurance system, plain and simple. It is meant to be able to keep the elderly, the infirm and some others that qualify out of abject poverty. It is usually just enough to keep people out, and if they did not have this, there would be many more in poverty that would be clammoring for services and help from the federal, state and local governments. Your taxes would increase.
Bottom line - Social Security good, W and Cheney bad for yelling
"Fire!" in a crowded room. You can get much more from the following websites:
[updated 4/29/2006 - fixed busted link now that the original webpage is a jobs seeking page][there is no crisis webpage from the Way Back Machine - some good links still here
angrybear.blogspot.com - this is a great economic blog which uses reality and economic sense to furnish ideas on the US and global economy and not David Stockman-like supply side junk. It can be a bit over my head (they are not talking about stainless steel ported valve clusters, fugacity or the Langlier Saturation Index, things which I studied in college and out of school ;o) ) but the summations are usually pretty clear to me.
[Update 23JAN05 - From Josh Marshall at TPM, he has linked to this chart which shows all SS recipients broken down by congressional district, total beneficiaries and some other great detail - thanks to techpolitics.org for this page -- RBE]
[Update 25JAN05 - from the AARP site, an open letter detailing that, simply stated, the AARP will oppose the dubya initiative completely -- RBE]
