Bush Tells Party He'll Invade Social Security Fund

[Guest guest]

> Thu, 02 Sep 2004 17:15:46 -0400

> palast

> Bush Tells Party He'll Invade Social

> Security Fund

 

>

> President Declares " Ownership Society "

> Tells Convention He's Ordered Invasion of Social

> Security Trust Fund

> by Greg Palast

>

> September 2, 2004 17:06

>

> [New York] Of all the bone-headed, whacky,

> breathtakingly threatening schemes George W. Bush is

> trying to sell us in his acceptance speech tonight

> is something he and his handlers call, " the

> Ownership Society. " Sounds cool, " ownership. "

> Everyone gets a piece of the action. Everyone's a

> winner as the economy zooms. All boats rise.

>

> Sure. Behind the hooray-for-free-enterprise crapola

> is that dog-eared game-plan to siphon off Social

> Security revenues to pay for making Bush's tax cuts

> for the rich permanent.

>

> Here's what the President has in mind. Social

> Security is an insurance plan. You pay in, you get

> back. But it's hard to get your money back when

> there's a war where the Clinton surplus used to be.

> It's not the war on terror, or the war in Iraq,

> though Lord knows those have cost us a bundle with

> nothing to show for all the lost loot. I'm talking

> about the class war that Dubya and his Dick Cheney

> have waged on the average working person.

>

> We're talking an economic Pearl Harbor here. While

> firemen and policemen went running into falling

> buildings, the Bushmen were preparing to relieve

> some gazillionaires, such as say, the Bush family,

> of the need to pay the taxes that the rest of us

> pay. Work as a teacher, you pay Social Security and

> income taxes on every darn penny. Sit on your

> yacht and speculate in the stock market casino and

> you are off the hook on taxes on the " capital

> gains. "

>

> Bill Clinton proposed putting his big surpluses into

> a Social Security " lock-box " for that predictable

> rainy day. But tonight, Bush instead proposes to

> give the stock-options class a boost by lopping off

> a chunk of Social Security insurance revenue for

> gambling in the stock market. He had this same idea

> in 2000. If he'd had his way on his inauguration

> day, the average " owner " in America, investing in

> the stock market, would be 7% poorer, many flat

> busted. Some " security. " Happy elderly " owners "

> would be hunting for lunch in the garbage cans under

> Madison Square Garden.

>

> Here's the latest report from the front lines of the

> class war: The World Bank reports the USA has more

> millionaires than ever -- we'll see them at the

> Garden tonight. Median household income's down --

> most of us are median -- while the bottom has fallen

> out for those at the bottom. Our poorest 20% have

> seen incomes drop by a fifth. America's upper one

> percent now own 53% of all the shares in the market.

>

>

> And now the uppers want to crack open your

> retirement piggy bank, cut some of your retirement

> benefits, then " allow " you to give them the

> remainder of your money to fund their latest stock

> float schemes.

>

> If betting trillions on stock market ponies doesn't

> produce a big win, what does Mr. Bush propose to do

> with all the hungry old folk? I think I heard

> George say, " Let them eat Enron certificates. "

>

> And the future market fall, Mr. President, is a

> slam-dunk certainty. Let's do the math. OK, class,

> we all buy stock this afternoon to fund our

> retirement. In fifteen years, baby-boomers are

> ready to kick back, take it easy and retire on the

> stock they're about to sell. Did I say, " SELL " ?

> And HOW. Around 2020, tens of millions of " owners "

> will be selling their shares … to whom? CRRRRASH!

>

> A deliberate policy of aiming for another 1929 is

> appropriate for the top-hat and pinky-ring party of

> Herbert Hoover.

>

> The big problem is that supposedly non-partisan and

> even Democratic poobahs are rushing to " reform "

> Social Security. We have Alan Greenspan, who has

> barely a word to say about the multi-trillion dollar

> deficit wrought by Mr. Bush's tax cuts, yet is

> already warning about some disaster in Social

> Security based on " trends. " Well, if we go by his

> own trend, the Fed chief will soon be marrying a

> 12-year-old Girl Scout.

>

> Hey, Alan, back to Economics 101 for you. As the

> boomers hit retirement age, we're going to need

> added borrowing for transfer payments like Social

> Security to maintain purchasing power to keep the

> economy alive while millions of old folk dump

> assets.

>

> Listen, Mr. President, we had an " ownership " society

> once before. Luckily, it came to an end when

> Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation

> Proclamation.

>

> ****

>

> Greg Palast, nominated Britain's Business Writer of

> the Year by the UK Press Association for his

> writings in the Guardian papers, is the author of

> the New York Times bestseller, " The Best Democracy

> Money Can Buy. " This month, Palast, who has

> returned to his native USA, will release, " Bush

> Family Fortunes, " the film based on his

> investigative reports for BBC television. Watch a

> preview of the film, out on DVD, at

> http://www.gregpalast.com/bff-dvd.htm Sign up for

> Palast's reports at

> http://www.gregpalast.com/contact.cfm

> ============================================