Thursday, February 03, 2005

The Complete Transparency of the Bush Administration

It's funny how it is...just yesterday, I blogged about how I was going to quit focusing on the Bush Administration and their policies, and here I am discussing President Bush once again. Some friggin' moron on O'Reilly right now is stating that the only reason the AARP is opposing the privatization of social security is because they make their money on the publicity they get from opposing issues like this. Are we living in a twilight zone? Why is Fox News on the air? Why do people watch this propaganda. How can the people of this nation not see right through the corporate and aristocratic vision that is the neoconservative agenda. The neocons are destroying everything gain that has been made in America in the past century. And yet, the Bush Administration has the audacity to evoke the legacy of FDR in their quest to rob this nation of it's only remaining truly progressive social security policy and safety net.

I am so furious about this -- what is this country thinking? Where is this so-called liberal media ready to condemn the bush administration for the . Now O'Reilly has a third straight right-wing pundit on, claiming that we will see an eleven trillion dollar shortfall in social security if we don't act now. Who are these sleezebags, and where do they drag them out from?

There is a simple solution to the so-called social security "crisis"...All we need to do is put on a 4% tax on all income greater than $120,000, with no additional social security benefits provided for this additional taxation. Case closed. There is no crisis. Right now, there is a cap...Individuals pay social security taxes on only the first $90,000 of income. There are claims that removing this cap will put a further squeeze on the middle class American. I don't know about, but I feel like anybody making $120,000 or over can live pretty comfortably, and they aren't going to feel much of a squeeze on a 4% tax on income over that amount. The claim that this will put a crimp on the economy, and cause job losses is hogwash.

Quit listening to the Republican Noise Machine for a minute, and take a look at the results. Under eight years of democratic leadership under Bill Clinton, we witnesses unprecedented economic growth, better paying jobs, and a balanced budget. With four years under republican George W. Bush, we have witnessed massive job losses, layoffs, outsourcing, economic decline, record budget deficits, and a massive deficit.

Bush came in with a projected 5.8 trillion dollar budget surplus. Get this straight -- The Bush Administration came in, saw the projected surplus, and stated "This money belongs to the people". They gave a huge tax cut to the rich -- and, look at the final result: The neoconservatives were not even able to forecast our economic outlook four years into the future. We went from a projected 5.8 trillion dollar surplus to the largest budget deficits in the history of the United States. Just remember that when you listen to the administration's estimates when they attempt to predict the economic conditions forty years into the future.

Look at what the Bush tax cuts to the rich have done for US: In eight years under President Clinton, the United States witnessed an amazing per-month average of 116,000 new jobs - a sustained period of growth. In four years under Bush, we have not witnessed ONE NEW JOB. Tax cuts for the rich do nothing but promote corporate fascism, an imbalance of power, and, ultimately, an aristocratic society.

Calling social security a "Crisis" is truly intellectual dishonesty. Social Security is currently the fiscally healthiest government program in existence, with a yearly budget surplus of over one hundred and fifty billion dollars, and a reserve of almost two trillion dollars. The system will continue to pull in budget surpluses every year until somewhere around 2018. This is by design, as the system prepares itself to handle with the large baby boomer population begins to retire. Guess what? Our population is not continuing to grow at the rate witnessed during the baby boom. The large blip in population growth eventually passed, and it will pass through the social security system without harm if we can successfully keep the neoconservative hands off of the federal reserve.

Did you know that when Bush once predicted that social security would be bankrupt by the late eighties if it was not immediately privatized. Guess what? It's twenty years later, and social security is still doing fine.

The Bush Administration is completely transparent -- They believe that the US economy would receive such a surge in productivity by the privatization process that we would once again be the world leaders in economic growth. This just isn't going to happen. The money will be soaked up fund managers, money managers, CEOs, VPs, and stockholders -- all the people who do not need social security, and have no business putting their grubby hands on this.

Social security is a social safety net. Ask yourself this -- Why is it that every other department is allowed to work in the red year after year. We spend around 400 billion dollars a year on defense spending. Between now and the time that Social Security begins going into debt in 40 years, we will most likely have spent over 16 trillion dollars on defense spending. Is this massive disparity in our countries financial commitments not striking? We will gladly spend trillions upon trillions of dollars on weapons systems, missiles, tanks, and airplanes, yet we will call spending a few trillion on the well being of the citizens of our country forty to fifty years in the future a crisis. Where are our priorities?

Social Security is simply not a crisis. The true crises of our time are the following - Economic Justice, Outsourcing and Corporate Reform, Fighting Budget and Trade Deficits, and promoting a viable and sustainable energy policy, based on renewable and alternative resources and the elimination and reduction of wasteful usage of energy and environmental resources. These are the true crises facing our nation, and this is where the attention of the President of the United States should lie.




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