Article

2007-09-24 Home Front: Politix

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by Steve White 2007-09-24 00:00|| || Front Page|| [1 views ] Top

#1 Strong and fair does not mean selling votes. A strong and fair country ensures that justice is true without regard to payoffs. That means making everybody work for their pay if they are truly capable. It also means personal responsibility. Something that has been lost over a short period.

I currently collect $1175 a month from this government "social security" account. That is enough to employ eleven Iranian families. If anyone has ever seen the third world, they would know that this and any other government program is helpful, but also dangerous.

Posted by newc">newc 2007-09-24 01:25|| 2007-09-24 01:25|| Front Page Top

#2 Obama is merely stating the obvious - this particular tax increase is inevitable. Think about it - the SS system is insolvent, and a tax on just the wealthiest few percent is not only politically harmless (they wouldn't have voted for you anyway), but is politically beneficial. It engages the 'wealth envy' classes and also shows people you are 'doing something' about Social Security.

Posted by Glenmore">Glenmore 2007-09-24 07:27|| 2007-09-24 07:27|| Front Page Top

#3 do you have ANY doubts that any tax raised to "make SS solvent" would be spent by the drunken sailors in Congress for something else? Mr. Lockbox was lying....

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2007-09-24 09:13|| 2007-09-24 09:13|| Front Page Top

#4 I know I'm not likely to see a penny of the money Mr. Wife and I paid into Social Security over the years, no matter how high the tax is raised.

Posted by trailing wife 2007-09-24 11:06|| 2007-09-24 11:06|| Front Page Top

#5 Remember folks, money that the SSA takes in now over and above what's required to pay beneficiaries is used -- required by law, in fact -- to buy Treasury bonds. Those bonds are supposed to be redeemed when needed, but in the meantime the politicos -- both the Congress and the White House, and both parties -- use the money as they wish. There is and never will be a 'lock-box', per Al Gore.

So what Obama really wants to do here is inject a big chunk of cash into the Appropriations process. Oh, they'll give the SSA their bonds. And the next time it looks like those bonds might actually have to be cashed, they'll .. raise taxes again.

Posted by Steve White">Steve White 2007-09-24 11:25|| 2007-09-24 11:25|| Front Page Top

#6 It makes no difference whether YOU think increased SS taxes would just get urinated away, or whether YOU will ever see a penny back; it only matters that a majority of voters believe THEY will come out ahead. (And they don't even actually have to come out ahead, they just have to be convinced they will, and that, given the state of the education system today, is not hard.)

Posted by Glenmore">Glenmore 2007-09-24 11:28|| 2007-09-24 11:28|| Front Page Top

23:58 3dc
23:56 OldSpook
23:56 Zenster
23:46 trailing wife
23:45 Zenster
23:39 JosephMendiola
23:37 Zenster
23:28 trailing wife
23:26 JosephMendiola
23:22 trailing wife
23:21 JosephMendiola
23:19 Mike N.
23:14 JosephMendiola
23:11 Grunter
23:07 trailing wife
22:55 OldSpook
22:53 OldSpook
22:51 trailing wife
22:45 Natural Law
22:40 Barbara Skolaut
22:30 OldSpook
22:26 smn
22:08 Zenster
22:04 OldSpook