Social Security Fraud May Become Bush's Watergate

... in 1998 that they had in 1978, the Social ... One begins to suspect that Bush actually meant it when ... points out, the long-term Social Security shortfall everyone's ...
http://www.bushwatch.org/socialsecurity.htm
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Press Release Source: Allen W. Smith

Social Security Trust Fund Fraud May Become Bush's Watergate, Suggests Author of 'The Looting of Social Security'
Tuesday February 1, 11:47 am ET
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050201/fltu022_1.html

WINTER HAVEN, Fla., Feb. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Economist and author Allen W. Smith, Ph.D., argues that the biggest obstacle to getting clear debate on the Social Security problem is the misinformation that continues to be spread by the AARP and others who argue that the trust fund holds real assets. "It is amazing how many people, including some Social Security experts, still just don't get it!" Smith said. "Weisbrot and Baker continue to spread the myth that, 'The Social Security trust fund will have more than $3.7 trillion in today's dollars in 2018.' Unless there is a change in policy, the trust fund will not have even $1 of real assets in 2018!"

Smith points out that David Walker, Comptroller General of the Government Accounting Office (GAO), while speaking at a Washington luncheon, co-hosted by Centrists.Org and the Alliance for Worker Retirement Security on January 21, 2005, said, "The left hand owes the right hand, and that has legal, political and moral significance. But it doesn't have any economic significance whatsoever. There are no stocks or bonds or real estate in the trust fund. It has nothing of real value to draw down."

"If the Comptroller General of the GAO says there is 'nothing of real value' in the trust fund, then there is nothing of real value," Smith said. "So what happened to the $3.7 trillion that so many people believe will be in the trust fund in 2018, or the $1.6 trillion that is supposed to already be in the trust fund today? The government has 'borrowed' it and made no provision for repayment of this debt."

The Social Security surplus generated by the 1983 payroll tax increase was supposed to be used to pay down the public debt. This would have been accomplished by purchasing regular marketable Treasury bonds in the financial markets. If this had been done, the trust fund would contain real assets and it would be able to pay full benefits until 2042. However, Smith maintains that President George H.W. Bush began using the money as if it were general revenue, and non-marketable special issue government securities were issued. Smith says that President Clinton continued this practice, so every cent of the Social Security surplus that flowed in under both Bush Senior and Clinton was spent. This misuse of Social Security funds became a major campaign issue in 2000, and both George W. Bush and Al Gore pledged to end the looting. President Bush repeatedly promised not to touch the Social Security money. Finally, in his first State of the Union address, delivered on February 27, 2001, Bush said, "To make sure the retirement savings of America's seniors are not diverted to any other program, my budget protects all $2.6 trillion of the Social Security surplus for Social Security, and for Social Security alone."

In casting their votes in the 2000 election, the American people, whether they voted for Gore or for Bush, were voting for a candidate who had solemnly pledged repeatedly that no Social Security money would be used for non-Social Security purposes. Smith argues that George W. Bush violated both that pledge and federal law when he spent every dollar of the $509 billion in Social Security surplus that was generated during his first term. "He continues to violate his pledge, and the law, each and every day as he spends the approximately $400 million in Social Security surplus that becomes available on a daily basis," said Smith.

Smith argues that the Bush privatization proposal is a Trojan horse to distract attention away from the looting of Social Security money. According to Smith, "Bush and Greenspan know that the government will face a major financial crisis beginning in 2018 when Social Security begins to run deficits, and the public discovers that there is nothing of value in the trust fund." Smith believes that "given the fact that Bush acknowledged the looting problem during the 2000 campaign, and made a solemn promise to the American people to end the practice, his misuse of Social Security money is a serious breach of the public trust," and Smith suggests that historians may refer to Bush's misuse of Social Security funds as "Bush's Watergate."

CONTACT: Barbara Rugel (863) 206-4431 or Allen W. Smith (863) 206-4292;
email: ironwoodas@aol.com
Website: http://www.lootingsocialsecurity.com

Available Topic Expert(s): For information on the listed expert(s), click
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Allen W. Smith, Ph.D.
http://www.profnet.com/ud_public.jsp?userid=350721

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... in 1998 that they had in 1978, the Social ... One begins to suspect that Bush actually meant it when ... points out, the long-term Social Security shortfall everyone's ...
http://www.bushwatch.org/socialsecurity.htm

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... as a congressional candidate in 1978, George W ... "[Bush] prefaced his latest with the unlikely ... nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Social Security will be ...
http://www.crisispapers.org/topics/soc-sec.htm

Daily Kos :: It's 1978 - Bush warns SS would go bust in 10 years
... gone bust within ten years of 1978 without the ... It doesn't prove that Bush has created fake ... Security began building up the Social Security Trust Fund, which now ...
http://www.mr-murder.dailykos.com/story/2005/1/26/134132/438

It's 1978 - Bush warns SS would go bust in 10 years
by Friar
Wed Jan 26th, 2005 at 10:41:32 PST

Hold on... in 1978. Yes, this is right. It happens in 1978 during Bush's run for Congress.

Diaries :: Friar's diary ::

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. 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." Bush criticized energy policy, federal land use policy, subsidized housing, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration ("a misuse of power," he said), and he warned that Social Security would go bust in ten years unless people were given a chance to invest the money themselves. None of this really distinguished him from Hance, though, so in the end Bush simply argued that a Republican could better represent the district: "If you want a chance in the way Congress has been run, send someone who will be independent from those who will run the Congress."

Link is here
http://www.texasobserver.org/showArticle.asp?ArticleID=1175

What an idiot. Now 27 years later he keeps repeating this BS. He's not a good economic forecaster, is he?

Let's get the memo out. What better way to fight than using his own words against him?

===========IN GOD WE TRUST!!!