Bush Sets Up Social Security 'War Room'

[richlevy]

Bush Sets Up Social Security 'War Room'

White House - AP
Bush Sets Up Social Security 'War Room'

WASHINGTON - A new Social Security (news - web sites) war room inside the Treasury Department is pumping out information to sell President Bush plan, much like any political campaign might do.

It's part of a coordinated effort by the Bush administration. The internal, taxpayer-funded campaigning is backed up by television advertisements, grass-roots organizing and lobbying from business and other groups that support the Bush plan.

Ah, my tax dollars at work.

For the administration, the communications effort is being coordinated out of Treasury's public affairs office through the new Social Security Information Center. Three people have been hired, with two more hires possible soon. The first three employees are veterans of the Bush-Cheney campaign or the Republican National Committee.

After, all you have to have people who have experience coordinating with outside groups running smear campaigns. Also, being inside the government gives everyone the opportunity to ask Homeland Security to run background checks on opponents. Let's not forget to make sure that those paid advertisments on TV look like real news shows, and remember to bribe those columnists.

I even have a new name for it. How about 'Ministry of Truth'?

[Clodfobble]

Remind me again what it is you disagree with about the actual plan, rich?

[glatt]

What plan? Has anyone actually heard what the plan is?

[Undertoad]

Doesn't matter because it's not gonna happen. The people are against it.

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

Doesn't matter because it's not gonna happen. The people are against it.

Apparently, the White House believes that the people don't know what they want and with enough tax dollars, can be told what they want.

The only argument that I accept for privatization in general is that it will set aside money that Congress can't borrow. That being said, raiding future funding to acheive that goal or even using general funds during a deficit seems stupid. Also, the White House is already playing its own game of 'hide the red ink' by treating all war and reconstruction costs as off-the-books items.

Taking advice on how to repair one of the most comprehensive and complex social programs in US history from a group of people who are trying to spend themselves out of a recession just seems stupid. At the very least, I would need to see real details and a real estimate by the CBO of exactly how much it will cost.

The CBO report said Bush's budget would yield deficits totaling $2.58 trillion during the 10-year period ending in 2015. That is $1.6 trillion higher than they would be if none of the president's fiscal plans become law, it said, the chief factor being his intention to make already enacted tax cuts permanent.

I am all for cutting taxes. However, cutting taxes and refusing to pay down debt is like saying that someone can fix $20,000 in credit card debt by just paying the minimum each month.

I know that this argument is about Social Security, but I am bringing in the deficit issues to underscore the fact that this adminstration does not know how to handle money. They mix faith into their economic policy the same way they are mixing faith into science and health. In this case, they believe that by throwing out extra money into the economy, they can jumpstart the economy to the point where it will race forward, paying back the money spent and using the extra wealth to pay down the debt.

If America were a semi-closed economy as it was in the 50's, that might even have merit. Unfortunately, we have a trade deficit and are exporting jobs.

It appears to me that privatization is making the same attempt with Social Security. The only problem is that if you wreck Social Security by using this approach and wreck the general fund using the same approach, neither is available to bail out the other.

It has always seemed to me that adminstrations sometimes only look to their terms when it comes to fiscal policy. But even if they sometimes go for short-term solutions, even the most irresponsible president realizes that the country has to exist beyond 4 or 8 years.

I swear from the way that Bush is burning money, it seems like he is getting ready for the end of the world. Maybe he believes that Revelations is just around the corner and that he really doesn't have to worry about 2042 because Judgement Day will be here before then.

In any case, while Congress is perfectly happy to roll their eyes and vote for social issues like school prayer, gay bashing, and other agenda items that will pacify the 'core groups', once you get to actual talk about money, they are all business. Most of the new Republican crop can sing hymns with the best of them, but they also know that 2+2 does not equal $2 trillion. You don't have to be an atheist to believe that GWB cannot pull a loaves and fishes act with the budget or Social Security. You just have to remember that GWB is not the Messiah, something that I hope the people around him are pointing out to him.

If the White House wants my vote on this, they shouldn't spend my money on TV ads. They need to put out details so that everyone can run the numbers.

[wolf]

Originally Posted by richlevy

After, all you have to have people who have experience coordinating with outside groups running smear campaigns. Also, being inside the government gives everyone the opportunity to ask Homeland Security to run background checks on opponents. Let's not forget to make sure that those paid advertisments on TV look like real news shows, and remember to bribe those columnists.

I even have a new name for it. How about 'Ministry of Truth'?

I have a better one ... "private industry".

If the government is to be run like a business, why be surprised when they act like one?

[tw]

Replace every dollar taken by the government from the SS Trust Fund with Treasury Bonds. SS problem solveds. It the SS Trust Fund was paid back interest on all the money taken from it to pay other bills, then the SS Trust Fund would have no financing problems. But then we might notice how much money George Jr was really spending.

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by tw

Replace every dollar taken by the government from the SS Trust Fund with Treasury Bonds. SS problem solveds. It the SS Trust Fund was paid back interest on all the money taken from it to pay other bills, then the SS Trust Fund would have no financing problems. But then we might notice how much money George Jr was really spending.

That was I think the reason that Greenspan was reluctantly in favor of some form of privitization, to keep Congress from raiding the trust fund 'lockbox' to lessen the deficit.

I like your solution better, TW. Make the bastards at least pay interest.

[xoxoxoBruce]

If the government is to be run like a business, why be surprised when they act like one?

Good God, the last thing I want is the Gumint to emulate big business. Enron is not the answer.

[Happy Monkey]

The purpose of government is to do the stuff that if handled in a corporate way would be evil.