David Sirota
Bush Challenged On His 1978 Social
Security Comments
Thu Feb 3, 2005 22:08
205.150.17.9
BUSH IS IN THE POCKET OF THE FINANCE INDUSTRY ON SOCIAL SECURITY
Bush seems to be worried about that, which makes a certain amount of sense given that the loudest wailing about the Social Security "crisis" is coming from the CEO crowd, those folks who, at present, make 5000, 6000 and 7000 percent more than the average working American's entire household. Bush, whose campaign told the New York Times recently that Social Security is "going broke," certainly doesn't want us to notice the real culprit behind Social Security's anticipated future shortfall, wage stagnation. According to Robert Kuttner, "the past two decades have seen unprecedented stagnation in wage growth, producing a depression of Social Security's anticipated income stream. If the bottom two-thirds of the income distribution had the same share of national income in 1998 that they had in 1978, the Social Security shortfall would nearly vanish, even without higher overall economic growth."
MORE: http://bushwatch.org/socialsecurity.htm
==========================================
Bush Challenged On His 1978 SS Comments
FYI...According to the NY Times, President Bush was challenged today about his comments (posted here this morning) in 1978 that Social Security would be bankrupted by 1988 unless the system was privatized. From the NY Times:
"Mr. Rangel also said he quoted to the president from a 1978 magazine article in which Mr. Bush, then running for Congress, was warning of an imminent collapse of Social Security unless it was privatized. 'And he said, 'I lost,' ' said Mr. Rangel, referring to Mr. Bush's defeat for Congress that year. 'And I said the Lord works in mysterious ways.'"
This is but a small shred of proof that blogging, researching and political activism can filter up and challenge a sitting President.
posted by David Sirota @ 11:38 PM
http://www.davidsirota.com/
====================================================
Remember when Social Security went bust in '88?
Published in Salon.com - Indexed on Jan 27, 2005 Similar pages
Relevance:
Remember when Social Security went bust in '88? Over at Talking Points Memo, Josh Marshall takes us back to 1978, when future president George W. Bush tried (and failed) to convert his family name into a seat in the House of Representatives. From a 1999 Texas Observer Article: "According to Gary Ott, who was then a reporter for the Plainview Daily Herald, Bush stopped by the paper's little office 'maybe five or six times [during Bush's 1978 congressional run]. He'd sit down at my desk; he was a fun guy. He was very outgoing, very friendly, and we would argue politics since I was a liberal. We'd argue over Carter policies.
http://www.northernexpress.com/editorial/features.asp?id=965
===================================================
Social Security's Phoney Crisis: Forget Privatization: There are a number of ways to fix retirement plan Author:Ted Rall 1/20/2005
Published in Northern Express - Indexed on Jan 27, 2005 Similar pages
Relevance:
Think back to the 2000 election campaign. Was anyone talking about Iraq? No way. Yet by fall 2002 we'd gotten so riled up--although nothing had changed--that millions thought Saddam was an imminent threat that had to be taken out. You have to hand it to George W. Bush: he can conjure a crisis from a vacuum. Now the same team that brought you "Iraq on $200 Million a Day" is pimping a preemptive strike on Social Security, seizing on Generation X doubts that the program will still be around when they retire and excessively rosy Democratic assurances to drive a stake in the biggest New Deal-era program.
http://www.northernexpress.com/editorial/features.asp?id=965
===========================================================
Elderly Not Sold on Bush Social Security Plan
MIAMI (Reuters) - Many elderly Americans are unconvinced that President Bush's plan for private Social Security accounts would protect their children and grandchildren, an informal sampling on Thursday found.
"It's not secure," said Joe Pinchas, 80, a New Yorker and "snow bird" spending the winter in Miami. "For my children, I'm worried. ... You could lose (money) -- playing the stock market sometimes you lose."
Simon Rubenstein, a friend sitting by the water at an oceanfront shopping center, said he favors the plan because it "allowed people the chance to make more money."
But few shared his endorsement.
Many remember the Great Depression that began with the stock market crash of 1929 and cite it as a reason to be cautious about Bush's 10-year, $754 billion plan that would be the biggest overhaul of Social Security since its creation in 1935.
"Those who depend on this new plan cannot be sure of the strength of the stock market," said Alice Z. Frazier, an 83-year-old retired schoolteacher in Hamden, Connecticut. "Bush is misleading the young people."
Norm Bungard, a retired Social Security manager who described himself as an enthusiastic capitalist and market investor, said private accounts would endanger a reliable program at a time when many corporate pensions have gone belly-up and one health crisis can wipe out a lifetime of savings.
"People save and some people fall on hard times. Social Security is darn near all they have," said Bungard, a 67-year-old Floridian. "I took applications from thousands of people during my career and what I heard over and over again is, 'You know, if it weren't for Social Security, I don't know what we would have done."'
'LET SOMEONE ELSE DO IT'
Under the president's proposal, workers under age 55 could divert about one-third of their Social Security payroll taxes into private investment accounts made up of stocks and bonds. Current benefits would remain unchanged for those 55 and older.
Dorothy Fleisher, a colon irrigation therapist in Miami who still works at age 78, said she wouldn't want the risk of a private Social Security account.
"From my experience in my own investments, I'm very happy to let someone else do it," said Fleisher.
She said she and her friends who advocate for older Americans via the Gray Panthers network don't think Social Security needs an overhaul.
"We just don't believe all the propaganda they're putting out, that it is going broke and so on. I think it's just a ploy, to give to the Wall Street buddies," Fleisher said. "Unless the government takes Social Security funds and spends them elsewhere, I think we're solid."
Bill Stevenson, 75, of West Medford, Massachusetts, has a disabled son who can no longer work. He wants to know what would happen to those who receive disability or survivors' benefits from Social Security but do not earn wages to contribute to private accounts.
"The fundamental strategy and purpose of Social Security is social insurance for the elderly and the disabled and the survivors, so widows and orphans will not want," said Stevenson, who retired from the finance department of a New York state agency.
He accused Bush of acting to benefit a "corporate elite which hasn't liked our system since it started."
"They want to destroy the system, not reform it," he said.
Patti Reilly, a spokeswoman in Washington for the Alliance for Retired Americans, said many of the group's 4 million members think Social Security needs some adjustments but don't trust that the president's plan would leave those over age 55 untouched.
"The issue for seniors is that private accounts take money away from Social Security," Reilly said. "While privatization sounds great ... the reality is people should not be gambling that which they can't lose." (Additional reporting by Frances Kerry in Miami, Gary Hill in New York)
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=7532926
=====================================================
Bush has already fouled up with the discount prescription cards. They are so complicated many of the elderly hasn't been able to figure it out.
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=Pharmaceutical+medicare+discount+cards+complicated
The Medicare Discount Card Dilemma
http://www.tcf.org/4L/4LMain.asp?SubjectID=4&ArticleId=798&TopicId=4
Drug discount cards are not popular
http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2004/12/15_scheckt_drugcards/
=============================================
Bush wants to let workers divert up to two-thirds of their Social Security taxes into private accounts that could invest in stocks and bonds. At the same time, the guaranteed benefit would be cut, though by how much is not clear.
http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/2005/02/03/ap1804990.html
Bush seems to be worried about that, which makes a certain amount of sense given that the loudest wailing about the Social Security "crisis" is coming from the CEO crowd, those folks who, at present, make 5000, 6000 and 7000 percent more than the average working American's entire household. Bush, whose campaign told the New York Times recently that Social Security is "going broke," certainly doesn't want us to notice the real culprit behind Social Security's anticipated future shortfall, wage stagnation. According to Robert Kuttner, "the past two decades have seen unprecedented stagnation in wage growth, producing a depression of Social Security's anticipated income stream. If the bottom two-thirds of the income distribution had the same share of national income in 1998 that they had in 1978, the Social Security shortfall would nearly vanish, even without higher overall economic growth."
MORE: http://bushwatch.org/socialsecurity.htm
==========================================
Bush Challenged On His 1978 SS Comments
FYI...According to the NY Times, President Bush was challenged today about his comments (posted here this morning) in 1978 that Social Security would be bankrupted by 1988 unless the system was privatized. From the NY Times:
"Mr. Rangel also said he quoted to the president from a 1978 magazine article in which Mr. Bush, then running for Congress, was warning of an imminent collapse of Social Security unless it was privatized. 'And he said, 'I lost,' ' said Mr. Rangel, referring to Mr. Bush's defeat for Congress that year. 'And I said the Lord works in mysterious ways.'"
This is but a small shred of proof that blogging, researching and political activism can filter up and challenge a sitting President.
posted by David Sirota @ 11:38 PM
http://www.davidsirota.com/
====================================================
Remember when Social Security went bust in '88?
Published in Salon.com - Indexed on Jan 27, 2005 Similar pages
Relevance:
Remember when Social Security went bust in '88? Over at Talking Points Memo, Josh Marshall takes us back to 1978, when future president George W. Bush tried (and failed) to convert his family name into a seat in the House of Representatives. From a 1999 Texas Observer Article: "According to Gary Ott, who was then a reporter for the Plainview Daily Herald, Bush stopped by the paper's little office 'maybe five or six times [during Bush's 1978 congressional run]. He'd sit down at my desk; he was a fun guy. He was very outgoing, very friendly, and we would argue politics since I was a liberal. We'd argue over Carter policies.
http://www.northernexpress.com/editorial/features.asp?id=965
===================================================
Social Security's Phoney Crisis: Forget Privatization: There are a number of ways to fix retirement plan Author:Ted Rall 1/20/2005
Published in Northern Express - Indexed on Jan 27, 2005 Similar pages
Relevance:
Think back to the 2000 election campaign. Was anyone talking about Iraq? No way. Yet by fall 2002 we'd gotten so riled up--although nothing had changed--that millions thought Saddam was an imminent threat that had to be taken out. You have to hand it to George W. Bush: he can conjure a crisis from a vacuum. Now the same team that brought you "Iraq on $200 Million a Day" is pimping a preemptive strike on Social Security, seizing on Generation X doubts that the program will still be around when they retire and excessively rosy Democratic assurances to drive a stake in the biggest New Deal-era program.
http://www.northernexpress.com/editorial/features.asp?id=965
===========================================================
Elderly Not Sold on Bush Social Security Plan
MIAMI (Reuters) - Many elderly Americans are unconvinced that President Bush's plan for private Social Security accounts would protect their children and grandchildren, an informal sampling on Thursday found.
"It's not secure," said Joe Pinchas, 80, a New Yorker and "snow bird" spending the winter in Miami. "For my children, I'm worried. ... You could lose (money) -- playing the stock market sometimes you lose."
Simon Rubenstein, a friend sitting by the water at an oceanfront shopping center, said he favors the plan because it "allowed people the chance to make more money."
But few shared his endorsement.
Many remember the Great Depression that began with the stock market crash of 1929 and cite it as a reason to be cautious about Bush's 10-year, $754 billion plan that would be the biggest overhaul of Social Security since its creation in 1935.
"Those who depend on this new plan cannot be sure of the strength of the stock market," said Alice Z. Frazier, an 83-year-old retired schoolteacher in Hamden, Connecticut. "Bush is misleading the young people."
Norm Bungard, a retired Social Security manager who described himself as an enthusiastic capitalist and market investor, said private accounts would endanger a reliable program at a time when many corporate pensions have gone belly-up and one health crisis can wipe out a lifetime of savings.
"People save and some people fall on hard times. Social Security is darn near all they have," said Bungard, a 67-year-old Floridian. "I took applications from thousands of people during my career and what I heard over and over again is, 'You know, if it weren't for Social Security, I don't know what we would have done."'
'LET SOMEONE ELSE DO IT'
Under the president's proposal, workers under age 55 could divert about one-third of their Social Security payroll taxes into private investment accounts made up of stocks and bonds. Current benefits would remain unchanged for those 55 and older.
Dorothy Fleisher, a colon irrigation therapist in Miami who still works at age 78, said she wouldn't want the risk of a private Social Security account.
"From my experience in my own investments, I'm very happy to let someone else do it," said Fleisher.
She said she and her friends who advocate for older Americans via the Gray Panthers network don't think Social Security needs an overhaul.
"We just don't believe all the propaganda they're putting out, that it is going broke and so on. I think it's just a ploy, to give to the Wall Street buddies," Fleisher said. "Unless the government takes Social Security funds and spends them elsewhere, I think we're solid."
Bill Stevenson, 75, of West Medford, Massachusetts, has a disabled son who can no longer work. He wants to know what would happen to those who receive disability or survivors' benefits from Social Security but do not earn wages to contribute to private accounts.
"The fundamental strategy and purpose of Social Security is social insurance for the elderly and the disabled and the survivors, so widows and orphans will not want," said Stevenson, who retired from the finance department of a New York state agency.
He accused Bush of acting to benefit a "corporate elite which hasn't liked our system since it started."
"They want to destroy the system, not reform it," he said.
Patti Reilly, a spokeswoman in Washington for the Alliance for Retired Americans, said many of the group's 4 million members think Social Security needs some adjustments but don't trust that the president's plan would leave those over age 55 untouched.
"The issue for seniors is that private accounts take money away from Social Security," Reilly said. "While privatization sounds great ... the reality is people should not be gambling that which they can't lose." (Additional reporting by Frances Kerry in Miami, Gary Hill in New York)
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=7532926
=====================================================
Bush has already fouled up with the discount prescription cards. They are so complicated many of the elderly hasn't been able to figure it out.
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=Pharmaceutical+medicare+discount+cards+complicated
The Medicare Discount Card Dilemma
http://www.tcf.org/4L/4LMain.asp?SubjectID=4&ArticleId=798&TopicId=4
Drug discount cards are not popular
http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2004/12/15_scheckt_drugcards/
=============================================
Bush wants to let workers divert up to two-thirds of their Social Security taxes into private accounts that could invest in stocks and bonds. At the same time, the guaranteed benefit would be cut, though by how much is not clear.
http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/2005/02/03/ap1804990.html
- Bush stumps for Social Security plan (Again) —NewsDay, Fri Feb 4 00:20
- Social Security card: "NOT TO BE USED FOR IDENTIFICATION —posted by Eric, Fri Feb 4 00:27
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