Saturday, January 15, 2005

Social Security Shenanigans

Who said this?

"For too long, too many people dependent on Social Security have been cruelly frightened by individuals seeking political gain through demagoguery and outright falsehood, and this must stop," .... "The future of Social Security is much too important to be used as a political football."


Answer Here.

Campare that to what the Bush administration is doing now. From the NYTimes:

Over the objections of many of its own employees, the Social Security Administration is gearing up for a major effort to publicize the financial problems of Social Security and to convince the public that private accounts are needed as part of any solution.

[...]

Social Security officials say the agency is carrying out its mission to educate the public, including more than 47 million beneficiaries, and to support President Bush's agenda.

[...]

But agency employees have complained to Social Security officials that they are being conscripted into a political battle over the future of the program. They question the accuracy of recent statements by the agency, and they say that money from the Social Security trust fund should not be used for such advocacy. "Trust fund dollars should not be used to promote a political agenda," said Dana C. Duggins, a vice president of the Social Security Council of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents more than 50,000 of the agency's 64,000 workers and has opposed private accounts.


Forget the argument about whether Social Security is in crisis or not. The issue here is: since when is it ok for my FICA tax dollars to be spent by the governent on an ad campaign to convince me of an administration's domestic agenda? Isn't that well, WRONG?

Another thing - aren't there enough "Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute, Concord Coalition, Social Security Veterans for Truth" think-tank dollars/whitepapers/talkingheads already out there to provide all the neccesary Social-Security-is-doomed talk for the SCLM to dutifully report on? Just how bad a shape is the Trust Fund in if the Administration has to start spending precious Trust Fund dollars to convince everyone that there is a shortage in those same dollars?

1 Comments:

Blogger Red Lenses said...

"What should we do with this projected surplus. I have a simple four-word answer: Save Social Security first." - Bill Clinton, 1998 State of the Union Address

Hmmm....if Dub is wrong, what did Bub want to save it from...?

"We have a great opportunity now to take action now to avert a crisis in the Social Security system. By 2030, there will be twice as many elderly as there are today, with only two people working for every person drawing Social Security. After 2032, contributions from payroll taxes will only cover 75 cents on the dollar of current benefits. So we must act, and act now, to save Social Security." - Bill Clinton, February 1998

What happened between then and now? :)

3:22 PM  

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