June, March 18 at 3:07 pm,

The United States claims democracy and is
always basing their wars on other countries
upon giving democracy to that other country,
especially if that country has resources wanted
by the United States; but, June, I did not say and
have never said the United States is a
democracy, far from it.

The United States has democracy for 30% of the
population, the Nobles and Nearly Nobles, but
there is NO DEMOCRACY or even political representation
for the 70% Majority Common Population, which
has been falsely divided into the Working Class
and foolishly claiming there is a Poor Class;
everyone should know that there is no such
thing as a poor class.

What the United States has is Greek Democracy
that didn’t include the Helots, only the Noble
aristocracy which included all Spartans and the
Nearly Noble Perioci which is the Middle Class.

I agree with your statement, “Theft is theft
whether committed by a single person, a band of
robbers or a bureaucrat who says “I’m here from
the government and I’m here to help you”. ”  The
bailouts of the big corporate corrupt band of
robber bankers so that they could recapitalize
their capital and continue ripping off the populace
was/is corporate government orchestrated theft,
or fascist theft, as the United States has
succumbed to fascism.

The bail out of the big corporate robber bankers
was/is theft.  Banker usury is theft.  Banker
variable interest loans is theft. Government
allowing the high cost of living without wage
increase is theft.  Social Security is not theft.

June, you are deceived, the Majority is not the government. 
The 70% Majority could rule the
government, but they will have to unite as the
Class and Culture of the Common Population that they are
in order to rule the government,
currently the government is being ruled by two minorities,
the Blue and the Red, as Green, Yellow and all
colors below Blue on the political
color spectrum have no representation whatsoever.

If you run upon hard times, June, you may be
glad there is Social Security.  It is a shame that
people run Social Security down just because
they want a little more money short term in their
pay checks and ignore the fact that they are
going to be old and need a means of support. 
Many people relying on private government
savings now have only Social Security, because
private corporate savings is not secure at all for
any member of the common populace.

June,
That’s correct although, over the last 150 years in particular, the usurpation of power by the feds from the states plus the feds push to dumb down successive generations has left the country full of idiots who don’t know the difference between a republic and Republicans.

To discuss a republic means to discuss the true nature of individual and state sovereignty. I think we’re at 21 states so far, and as the shit storm from Washington keeps dumping more on everyone, I’m sure list will keep growing.

June, March 7 at 7:52 pm,

If Social Security is a type of Ponzi Scheme, as you seem to think, it is a Ponzi Scheme for the benefit of the Greater Majority, instead of the minority, as all the other Ponzi Schemes, after all, the pyramid scheme of the government itself is a Ponzi Scheme.

Lee,
Nothing Libertarian about it, nor do I need a bible. I just thought people might be
interested in chasing down some of the information.

Okay BR549, I attempted to check out the link one more time, I just cannot tolerate the black background with white print for very long.  I gather from the little I happend to reat, it seems like a libertarian approach to things, which does not interest me nor do I find it enlightening! 

I agree our government has many flaws, I look at it like my ex wife, I tolerated her flaws until she ran off with the bible salesman, now I don’t have to tolerate them anymore and I have a house full of bibles!

Not sure what the morel of this is,.... do you need a bible?

Why Do They Hate Social Security?

They being capitalist Conservatives and Republicans—
Conservatives and Republican capitalists hate Social Security
because people on Social Security have no capital and rely on
Social Security Insurance that they themselves have paid into all of
their lives as a means of their survival in hardship and old age—
Conservatives and Republicans are capitalists and begrudge non-capitalists for
surviving by not having capital in a capitalist country,  when
capitalists by hook and by crook have gotten all the money and
capital there is to be got, and consider themselves invincible and
in need of nothing and feel it necessary to squash the little man
who has not attained to such heights as a passtime.

Lee,
Try the link. It’s worth the read. Stuler’s material lines up quite nicely with other huge issues which I’m not going to get into here for reasons of brevity.

If you want to go back into history, review the Kentucky Resolutions from 1798 and later 1799, particularly Resolution #9. In no uncertain terms, it defines, EVEN BACK THEN, how they knew of the evil that a corrupt federal government can generate, and with respect to the Federalist Papars, particularly under the influence of the banks. So all of this is nothing new. The only thing that is different is how the legislature has systematically found more clever ways to conceal their crimes from the voting public.

There are those in Congress who are guilty of a truckload of crimes, others who know about them and choose to say nothing, and then a small handful of our entire legislature who actually have a social conscience.

Ok BR, social security is not broke, it is a scam, is that why they want to get rid of it now as more people may need it?  By they I infer those opposed to social security.  I love conspiracy as well as the next guy. All this time I thought the attack on SSI, was because it was social in nature?

To be honest BR, I did not read the whole link for I am in the Lafayette mode…. actually Descartes mode ‘believe nothing’.

I am always wondering (but not as a dogma)  who is buttering who’s bread!

Martha,
The illusion of Social Security was the bait that sold the facade to the American public. It was the FDR era’s red herring to create a slush fund and it was through this vehicle that Clinton was later able to get everyone to believe he left office with a surplus when in fact he left us with a $95B deficit.

Many moons ago, a contributor here had posted how Social Security had been created through the mechanism of the Merchant Marine so as to trick everyone into becoming legally required to pay taxes through the Foreign Commerce clause. It’s worth the read and makes you wonder what our legislature has really been doing all along.

See:  http://llstuler.wordpress.com/

June,

A little more smoke and mirrors please,... it would be nice in the very least, if some support of your opinion was followed with one of those Fox balanced talking points!

SSI is broke, no it isn’t, yes it is, no it isn’t, yes it is, no it isn’t!

Yeah people are living way to fricking long anyway, . what are wars for and the horror of a National Medical plan!  Oh, Damn;  I almost forgot about that damn Medicare taking up space,..... taking money away from those cannon fodder wars, especially while everything else is broke,......... well except for Wall Street, the oil companies, the Mass Media and the Military complex, I probably forgot some! 

So lets focus om on important stuff, like getting rid of those thug Unions or gay marriage, something to really sink those Russ Limbaugh Republican teeth into, well ...anyway, when the Republicans are not are attacking womens rights…....... What war?

After all…... Social security has social in its name,.... so its gotta go!

June:
Two words. Increased Immigration.

June, February 20 at 7:35 pm,

You’re way off base, Social Security is insurance, definitely nothing like a Ponzi Scheme.

ososotired, February 20 at 3:02 am,

Unfortunately the United States can not go back to the FDR Era because of the New Class of the Left, represented by Harold Ford’s DLC, that separated as a class and culture from the Common Population.  There is no middle class other than the 20% Middle Class that formed as a New Class when the Conservative Revolution started in the 1980’s and separated completely from the rest of the Common Population to represent themselves as a New Class and Culture.

Now, the 70% Majority Common Population as a class and culture must demand their own political representation in the making of legislated law and order in the Congresses of the United States, otherwise there will be no political representation in the best interest of the 70% Majority Common Population as a class and culture and the economy for the 70% Majority Common Population as a class and culture will only get increasingly worse until they arrive at servant status to be worked for nothing or sold as indentured servants.

Only the people, the public, the 70% Majority Common Population, can change the situation that has arisen in our country; unions help, but unions can’t do it.  The people must rise up as in Wisconsin and declare that there must be a new political party equal in every way with the Democratic Party and the Republican Party to represent the 70% Majority Common Population as a class and culture, the American Common Populace Class and Culture, in order for the government entitlements of the other classes and cultures to be recognized as entitlements, instead of only legislated benefit of the Common Population recognized as entitlements.

Unfortunately it is even nastier than just Wall St seeking to get the money. Wall St is actually being used for a higher purpose. The richest of the rich, those who want to engineer society to their grand scheme are not interested in getting richer or having more money. These are the folks who have hated even the IDEA of a middle class that could rise to great heights of influence, craft a different society with each succeeding generation, vote with equal power regardless of origin or breeding, and perhaps thwart some future plan that the would be rulers might hatch.
These are the people who actually planned the armed takeover of FDR’s White House and the other two branches of the Federal Government when the New Deal began to work.
Prior to FDR it wasn’t that more people starved, it was that the entire working class, from migrant crop pickers to machinists had nothing extra, no time, no spare energy to influence or to compete. Bankers sired Bankers, Industrialists sired Industrialists, Mega-Rich Sired Mega-Rich, and entering into this elite class from outside was by Marriage or by gift.
FDR changed that and it really really hurt. People COULD begin to really rise, have spare time, energy, education, and money. There were government programs to HELP. Prior to this, it was poor helping poor.
My Grandfather complained about the Feds taking over the “Community Chest” because it meant that the Town (meaning the rich in the town) no longer had a say in who got what charity. He was still complaining in 1978.
He spoke of the huge party the town fathers threw when FDR died, celebrating the return to the good times. But he had mellowed some and didn’t go. He said it was because the good times had also created the Wall St. Crooks.
So the idea of Social Security being gutted is not just for the money, it is to put the middle class back where a very few but very powerful 18th century family successors want them.
We are almost there. Citizens’ United made it possible for even the nouveaux riches to act on their behalf unknowingly. The nouveaux riches are concerned with money. The same families who were involved in the 1933-34 coup attempt are STILL the leading forces behind the dismantling of the country for their own purposes, not their wealth. They want to act without constraint in trade, in sovereignty, and in law. And they can not do so with a middle class which has a voice, the time and the energy to object.

The Common Populace need to united for political representation as the class and culture they are and quit being fooled by the stinking thinking of getting into the Middle Class.  The Middle Class is 20% of the population and the Middle Class and Culture will keep it that way, that is why they separated as a New Class.

The masses of the public at large will become aware of their power as the American Common Populace, which denotes no insignificance whatsoever individually, only a class and culture that needs to be realized in the United States, because as individuals there is no way to have equality with the two other classes and cultures, the Corporate Middle Class and Culture that will never grow to more than 20% of the population and the Corporate Elite Capitalist Class and Culture that is only 10% of the entire population.

Here are some definitions of common usage:

common:

1.  belonging equally to each or all of a group: The airwaves of the United States belong in common with the entire population of the United States. 2. of all; from all; by all; to all; general: common knowledge, 3. united, joined: Science and medicine form a common front against ignorance and disease. 4. belonging to the community at large;public: He sowed a slander in the common ear.  A commoncouncil. The common population of Egypt and Wisconsin USA are outraged at the government’s attempting to remove the workers common benefit.

common carrier:  A person or business conveying goods or people for pay, offering the service to the public generally, the common population.

common council: the lawmaking group of a city, town, etc.

commoner:  one of the public; a person who is not a nobleman. 

common land:  land that is used and enjoyed by the public and is not restricted to private ownership.

common law: 1. law based on custom and usage, but confirmed by the decisions of judges, as distinct from statute law.  2. the law of all countries whose legal systems derive from English law, as distinct from civil or canon law.  3. law based on the decisions of judges in actual cases; case law.

common market:  an association of countries for promoting free trade among its members by eliminating tariffs, duties, and similar restrictions, with a common tariff for external commerce.

common wealth:  1. the group of people who make up a nation; citizens of a state.  2. a democratic state; republic.  3.  any one of the states of the United States.  4. a number of people united for a common interest.

*

Warning, ranting may cause Tequila breaks!

Name some names,.... Peter the poster asks? Blaming the public workers for all the problems seems a bit short sighted. But then we can turn on the horrors of collective bargaining and the unions and people who live from pay check to pay check especially if they still have work.  One thing about the GOP, they do not seem in any way shape or form to represent me and my fellow slob on the street and especially those who lost their homes, their jobs and self esteem. Also I am beginning to doubt the Democrats are much different. At least in Wisconsin the democrats attempted to take action, doing something to help the state workers or was their action just politics?

Even the self righteous right to work states like Texas have a budget deficit problem as bad or worse then California, so in Texas, blame the workers and their non existent unions?

One only need list the entitlements of the wealthy to see the problem,.... oh and do not forget to consider the new world order! Greece and Egypt seem to have caught on and what ever happened to hope and change?

By the way nice post Big B!

Bill the Clinton sold the United States down the river of the new global scheme of things, last time I checked he was supposed to be a Democrat, even supposedly born here in the good old USA.  Our representative government represents special interests, it seems my interests are not special enough.  I cannot even afford medical insurance nevertheless afford my own lobbies or afford to manipulate the media to my pet political desires, all I can hope to
do is watch with amusement as the price of gas goes up and survive as best I can or maybe move to China where I can walk to work.

To unregistered commentator “Peter”

According to the GAO, last year the average public sector retiree was 62-65 tears old. Their “huge” average pension was $19,000 a year (wow, with extravagant benefits like that, your plane to Belize is gonna be filled to the brim with all those “rich” government retirees)

The average public sector employee, local, state or federal, makes slightly LESS in salary than a private sector counterpart. Yes, for that sacrifice they do tend to have good healthcare benefits and decent pensions (unlike the majority of the private sector workers, who have seen “market conditions” lead to the cutting of most of their benefits, and the elimination of others)

Hey all you “Peters” out there, The average american family of four lives on less than 50 thousand dollars a year. Most have no pensions. They have 401K’s that they contribute less and less to, because they need that money to pay for their ever increasing healthcare costs, utilites and the like.

I don’t know where “peter” works, making enough money to fully fund a 401K and retire at 55, still having enough to afford your own heath insurance until medicare kicks in, but good for you! Now take a glance down from the ivory tower for just a second and realize that you are in the 1% minority that can afford that. The rest of the US, by and large, now live paycheck to paycheck thanks to the innerworkings of the “free market”. Do we envy people like “peter”? I am sure many do. But keep in mind, the few “peters” out there have helped create to world thatthe majority live in now.

They don’t hate Social Security; they hate this country and the fact that it stands for something that is beyond their paramecium minds to comprehend. Their near total lack of insight and their lack of integrity has them stealing the lifeboats while the ship is sinking and women and children are drowning.

Social Security has always been a slush fund. Roosevelt knew this and so has every politician who knew the inner workings of Washington. The same thing can be said of FEMA. The public was led to believe that it was to assist civilians in disaster preparedness and be able to maintain a function government; tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, nuclear bombs, etc., NOT to have FEMA steal 94% of its budget to build detention camps and buying LRAD and ASD devices to be used against the American population.

If the evolution of FEMA was equivalent to giving a loaded handgun to a six year old, Social Security was like a father cashing in his hard earned paycheck at the end of the week and giving it all to that same six year old for a trip to the toy store.

Rat bastards all of them ....... ever since the ‘30s. While a few have stood tall and tried to do right, the rest of those maggots have been feeding of the festering corpse ever since, knowing full well what they were doing but powerless to stop it. It is the epitome of human weakness; that base instinct of man that has him pull a disconnect from his own race while he takes care only of himself. THAT is our classic politician, a social parasite. And you can tell who they are because every time any discussion comes up about morality and ethics, they are the first to pontificate and the last to vote for it, if at all.

RGO
Yes the ratio of FICA taxes to benefits is obviously not 1 to 1. Some people will pay much more in proportion to their benefits and some much less. That’s how public sector services work - they subsidize.

OK this is the main point which cannot be overstated; yet eludes so many people.  At $10 an hour, people do not contribute to a 401K.

“More important than those comparative statistics is the fact that the great majority of Social Security beneficiaries have no other cushion for their retirement—not because they were lazy or improvident, but because their wages were simply too low to permit much savings, let alone investment.”

Rob- “its not matter of hey people like it and thats why we should keep it. greed is when you get back twice what was paid in.”

No, it IS a matter that people like it and it should be kept. That’s called democracy. Second, it’s hard to imagine someone living on $14,000 (max payout) being called “greedy,” especially considering inflation. If someone invested their SS payroll deduction in the stock market they could have made a lot more, or lost it all. SS is simply an insurance policy so that people too old to work will be able to live with dignity. It’s common decency, which is why it’s a popular with decent people.

Social Security, (post name?)

Comments using a quote and I suppose a personal reflection, but starts out with the following sentence; “The problem is that the Social Security System is a
flawed system, it’s a Ponzi scheme.” ...... I ask, Is this supposed to be opinion, an idea or am I supposed to accept it as a fact from the blinding light bulbs over SS’s head. 

Are we actually seeing Glen Beck attempting to express himself by using the written word?

Possibly, for me comprehension seems to not to be working or was this poorly attempted satire?

D. Headley - nor have they read Thurber’s “The King of
the Jungle” about the lion who, doubting whether he
really is ‘king’ of the jungle, sets off one morning to
prove he is by killing off every living creature in the
jungle.  When he gets home, his wife, the wise lioness
reminds him that he has just wiped out their food
supply and therefore they’re going to starve to death
in the not so distant future.

Another hidden opposition to Social Security may be employers who could save a tidy bundle of money if they did not demandingly have to pay the employer portion, though it is tax deductible, the idea of a mandatory deduction does not go well nor into CEO bonsais.  Goldman Sucks or Wall Mart comes to mind.

If it benefits not I, .....does not increase profit, ....it is not worthy of support? ....The Republican mantra!

Don and Rob have a problem with facts or at least providing something with the slightest degree of supported reality. Maybe citing sources would be helpful Don and Rob.

Johanson supported SSI from the general fund? explain?

Even if true, it would be safe to say most receptionists who depend on SSI paid into both SSI and the general fund? I guess a real patriot would rather see the general fund go to general war?

The left caused the problem when Bush tried to place Social Security into the hands of Wall Street? (just before the bile out?) and now Wall Street soars, damn I wish Bush had suckseeded, maybe they can take SSI to the race track. Bush probably did this to take heat off his war and if it had worked, Bush would have been even a bigger hero in his own eyes! Boy, I can guesstimate just like those smart Republicans.

I get all may felonious facts from Fox News too!

They hate it because there’s a HUGE bolus of money being “wasted” on the elderly when it should be invested in Wall Street so that young and middle-aged bankers can have multiple Ferraris.

Remember: that was Bush’s big failure, trying to privatize SocSec to benefit a small number of wealthy people.  That was ALWAYS his M.O., to get a bolus of $$$ into rich people’s hands.  First the U of Texas endowment, then the budget surplus, then Medicare, then SocSec, and finally the fall 2008 bail-out.

Nothing changes. This is what Republicans do: Try to concentrate more and more wealth into fewer and fewer hands, and, if the unemployment rate goes up, well, as John Boehner says, that’s just too bad.

rob ....“people are getting back much more than what was payed in….”

yeah so? if they had put their money into a bank, which the bank can use while they hold it(same as the government with SS contributions), shouldn’t they expect a return on that investment?

There’s some good points made in this article, but the title question still goes unanswered. I don’t see it as a mystery really. Conservatives who tout the “magic” of the elusive “free market” are religious zealots. They view altruism suspiciously as a defect in the Darwinian dog eat dog myth and socialism as outright heresy, worthy of burning at the stake. Their hatred for social security is as irrational as their faith in a free market which does not and cannot exist. Behind their arguments for austerity (for others, of course), such people are feudal lord wannabees jealous that any of the crop gets consumed by the peasants and are at heart really, just greedy, self-centered, a-hole sociopaths. It’s not much of a mystery really…and social security is NOT an entitlement - its an insurance plan the recipients paid for throughout their working lives. Nor is SS insolvent or a contributor to the deficit at all…but hey, facts never impinge on the fantasy world of the religious zealot.

Why Do They Hate Social Security?  They are sadistic freaks that get off on punishing the less powerful.  The obvious most direct answer is always the most accurate.

Critics of SS have the same credibility problem as Climate Change deniers.
They insist they know more than the experts whose training and position make them the responsible authorities in either discipline.
The Climate deniers, with no scientific training but lots of political and economic motive, accuse the scientists of trying to cash in on the big grant bucks by saying that Change is not only coming, but on us.
The SS reformers, having benefited from Saint Ronald’s understanding of marketing, have gone from wanting to shut down SS to “understanding the need to reform” it to prevent dire but unspecified consequences, to more blatantly wanting to privatize it, to run it through Wall Street. But the people who oversee the program, and the fund, say it’s fine and just periodically needs a tweek as times change.
In both cases, the argument comes down to “Who are you gonna believe, an upstanding Republican Congressman like me or some overeducated (science geek with a ponytail) or (liberal economist on the non-profit dole)?”
And in both cases it’s humbuggery.

Because social security, medicare, and other such entitlements prevent the masses from becoming completely indentured servants to our economic neo-feudalistic “private sector” and the glorious “free market”! Frankly, a good way to save social security would be to drop all registered republicans and self proclaimed conservatives since they so despise it!

Conservative and Republican Short term profiteers and squanderers of Common Populace benefit are revolted at the Common Populace receiving any kind of constructive benefit from government, no matter what it is.

I look forward to the time when the Majority Common Populace realize as a whole that they are the 70% Majority Common Populace, instead of always portraying themselves as a part of the Conservative Middle Class, because when that happens, there can be unity of the 70% Majority Common Populace for the benefit of the whole of the nation as a society.  Currently, too many of the 70% Majority Common Populace think they are the Conservative Middle Class and have a Poor Underclass to look down on, and as long as they have this mind set, they will NEVER be able to have a unified majority, because the 70% Majority Common Populace will be divided every which way and the 70% Majority Common Populace must become ONE with their class and culture to not be run over by the other two classes and cultures, the American Middle Class and the American Aristocracy, a combined 30% minority population ruling class duopoly, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party.

When the 70% Majority Common Populace come to themselves, they will realize there is a need for political representation of their class and culture in the government of the United States, and that without separate representation apart from the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, there will be no equality in the United States for the 70% Majority Common Populace.

.

Destroy what works, then build on the chaos. Profit from what you build, and then move on to another thing that works.

It is a VERY old formula. Orignally used thousands of years ago in the age old fun game of Nation Building/Empire Expansion: convince the mass that it is in their interests to rid themselves of the old, BAD ruler(s) and that the new ruler will make it better. 

Apply it to economics, industry, trading, in short, capatalism, and voila! Works the same.

Greed, the quicker picker upper.

To “Jeff” - Your idea that SS is a “retirement fund” is a the heart of your misunderstanding of Social Security.

SOCIAL SECURITY IS NOT A RETIREMENT SYSTEM….It’s a safety/security system. It was not conceived as a retirement plan.

Also, almost all my ageing relatives who railed against SS are now happy recipients of the benefits (as you will be someday). Quit whining about paying into the fund…...I’ve never met anyone who cited paying the payroll tax for financial problems.

Natural Persons ORGANized as genuine Human Communities, having the Living Virtue of Humanity’s Organic Functional Integrity (as a vital component in the natural immune system of our Mother Earth), have at least some chance of together getting through this all-in/-out assault on what’s left of the Humanity of our currently captive Sisters and Brothers.  The commenter below who notes that “civilized” “individuals” are such easy pickings for the two-legged tools of the tormenting ‘entity’, thus the reign-of-terror regime’s massive mediated effort to get and keep people in that helpless CONdition, says it all in a nut’shell.

It’s still The Tiyoshpaye Way or no way at-all, as much as so many here have resented having to ‘hear’ that from this Old Savage, through these four years now gone-by….and the Living Way or DEAD END “decision-point” is upon us right here-and-now, Boys ‘n’ Girls.

ALL TOGETHER….NOW?!?!

HokaHey!

Conason:  “Among the mysteries of modern politics in America is why so many
of our leading pundits and politicians persistently seek to undermine Social
Security”
    I believe its not such a mystery. Social Security is at the heart of a social
construct that emphasizes the “we” of family and humanity. It brings together
the young and the old of society in a way that benefits the whole. It secures the
notion of “we the people” in our culture and political structure. It is the
antithesis of capitalist economics that wants to divide mankind into competing
economic units that are more conducive to the concentration of resources and
wealth. Do we cooperate to survive or compete to survive? The conservative
corporate interest will always seek to destroy any force or institution that want
to unite man in cooperative ways. Capitalist see it as an amoral arena. Its just
business. Humanity should not take it personally.

Errror:  corollary

Key, and not mentioned yet?  “upper mobility”. 
  The U.S. was built on self-centered ideas like “upper mobility.”  That is, everyone—even you—can be better than someone else if you “work hard”, “do the right thing”. “vote”, “salute the flag”, “win wars”, “avoid socialism”, “don’t worry, be happy” and such bromides.
  People who get no more than high school education (and that often faulty) have self-centered ideas ingrained by repetition.  Ideas about charity, sympathy and caring are for Sunday School. Here, pass this test.  You have to compete!  Teachers who dare question ideas associated with “upper mobilitiy” are suspected of betrayal.
  The corallary to “upper mobility” is not stasis but wrong doing, backsliding and sin: You aren’t living right, working hard enough, voting Republican, aren’t the right color, etc. You aren’t one of us.
  Therefore you don’t “deserve” help from our tax-payers’ taxes.  You aren’t “entitled”. You are “taking advantage of the system”, “cheating” etc. You need to be punished by some “downward mobility.” That’ll wake you up!
  So you starve? Eat catfood. Tough!  You brought it on yourself. 
  This set of ignorant ideas persists because it is self-gratifying.  It makes “us” feel better than “them” and prevents our own having to hit bottom and admit “failure.” If we have a sneaking idea that such ideas might be immoral, well ... people who count, manage to stay off welfare, don’t they?  Get a grip! Good luck, buddy!  Things’ll be better tomorrow. I hear they’re hiring at Walmart.
  As long as a sizeable number of lower/middle people are not disabused of such nonsense, there is little hope for social improvement in the U.S.

Felicity: It seems logical that the surplus, whether it’s in the form of IOU’s or there is actual money there (who really knows the truth in the Smoke and Mirror Show?)is the “mystery element” in Washington’s immediate need to do away with it. They either want to hide the truth that they’ve plundered it, or pilfer whatever money has not yet been plundered. That the money belongs to us is of no bearing, since they are happily engaged in taking our jobs, unions, pensions, and homes. Next up on the hit list? A stock market crash that will render anyone with any money left broke.

A well needed article by Joe Conason, for the passing gas sponsored by the Mass Media has become so damn deafening. One must never allow facts to get in their way,  yet there does seem to be an agenda, an agenda of constant smoke and mirrors, a conjured form of fear?

Very interesting how people can be brain washed by just one key word. A hypnotist preforms his act by placing someone under a hypnotic spell, then making the subject preform as he demands. For instance asking the subject to cluck like a chicken or dance like a fool, simply by using only one key word…...social.

Social Security may be the only federal government program which actually works and works as or better than intended. Seemingly an intolerable situation for there is money in those coffers, and right now hands off. Bush attempted to capitalize on this socialist program, possibly placing another feather in his cap while shoving one more up the peoples asses.  Opportunists will always whittle away at opportunity, for that is what they do. Take for example the constructing of shopping centers on prime farm land. if there is any money to be made,the people must step aside or they may get hurt sooner instead of later.

Socialism is not the problem,  the problem is a never ending story of rape by opportunism supported by a foundation of new speak lies.

Obama has given the impression,  as if he is promoting hands off of social security with his new budget cuts,  but has he even stated as this article the truth about social security? Has Obama proclaimed Social Security very solvent and working, as this article has?  Social security seems one more pawn for the politicians a toy to play with for keeping their slight of hand always ready but well hidden.

My complements to Joe Conason and previous posters comments, for we all seem to be aboard the same leaky boat tillered by morons drilling holes in the bottom for isn’t how to let the water out.

purplewolf - As I understand it, SS now has a surplus
of $2 1/2 trillion.  The question is how much of that
surplus is in the form of iou’s, money owed to the
fund by politicians who’ve been pilfering it for
years and who are now trying to stiff us by not
having to honor their iou’s. 

Believe it or not, for many making war on SS it’s
because it was legislated during FDR’s presidency,
was a New Deal baby and anything enacted under the
New Deal is a conspiracy perpetrated by socialists.
Hard to believe that there are so many petrified
brains calling the shots in DC - even to this day.

Social Security is not like a venerable entity where it can be consolidated with another leaving the former’s pensions to conveniently dissipate like the morning fog. I believe that is why the Rethuglicans have attempted year in and year out to privatize the only thing left to one’s self respect after the Madoffs, the Abramoff’s and the Koch’s have schemed and connived via the Supreme Court to relieve the non-fraternity brothers, the UnAmericans, the percieved disitants, the trouble makers who once was free to voice an opposing opinions, the Non-Comformists of any and all possessions heretofore. Their Motto, What’s MINE IS MINE AND WHAT YOURS IS MINE, EVENTUALLY.

The word “entitlement” is always said with a large measure of distaste, as though every person who worked all their lives and put money into their SS fund week after week, whether they wanted to or not, is now not entitled to that money because they are part of a socialist system. Politicians claim they don’t want grandma to eat cat food because they know their grandma won’t be eating cat food, but they certainly don’t care if your grandma does. Cat food, after all, is mostly fish (or something.)

SS is a highly popular program, although you would not know that since many of the people currently on it who manage to ambulate once a month to their mailbox to get their check, when polled state they are against socialism in any form. Connecting the dots does, after all, require a functioning brain.

Because they want us to be insecure, and it interferes with their efforts to turn this
country into a slave state.

The wealthy believe that workers should not have any rights, because they are guilty of
being poor. Since the wealthy believe that they are exalted above all others by wealth,
which proves they are the favoritftes of God.

The banks believe that workers are their property, and that social security raises their
cost of doing business, so that means their profit goes down, which, means
less money for them.

The banks also believe when the people have more money is more difficult for them to
control he government by buying our political leaders as they have done now.

The govt knows you will never protest (unlike France, Greece, Egypt etc.) so they know they can reduce it. Most people are too busy watching the Academy Awards or American Idol to notice.

We need to start asking why so many commentators and hosts, even on supposedly progressive networks, are calling for blood on SS.  I hear it constantly as if harsh fixes for Social Security are essential to our survival.  What’s this about???  I think there must be an agenda there…covering the fight, or personal resentment of having the payroll tax, or maybe just plain laziness in confusing SS with Medicare. 

Maybe the media just longs for the days of “Grandmother Living on Cat Food” stories.

1)“Greed is good”
2)“The one with the most toys wins”
3)“It’s not enough to win. You have to make sure everyone else loses.”
4)“The more property you have, the more your vote should count.”

The Four Horsemen of the Republican Apocalypse.

Why is SS called an ‘entitleme­nt’? Is it because we are entitled to it in proportion to how much we pay into it? If so, then it’s fair and just and should not be tampered with. The way the word is bandied about, however, sounds like we are expecting something we don’t deserve. That is a lie. The same holds for Medicare, though perhaps to a lesser extent. All tax paying citizens (and their dependents­), neverthele­ss, are entitled to health care in a civilized society, as is the case in all the developed industrial world with the notable exception of exceptiona­l America.

And the last paragraph says it all. Provided these is still any money left in the vault or is it a bunch of I.O.U.‘s that are there instead.

And as long as we are questioning if any money is left or has it been already stripped of it’s contents for the Republican war machine and the haves and the haves more. Fort Knox. During the Bush administration, the public visitation of the vault where the gold was kept are no longer being allowed to be seen by the public. What are they trying to hide? Could it be that the gold that was once kept there no longer there?

Getting back to social security. How can these political liars continue to get up and boast that America is still the greatest nation on earth when we are cutting the heating assistance for the elderly and disabled poor to heat their living quarters, cut medical benefits and incomes that have not had a cost of living increase for the past 4 years as everything continues to rise and in some cases the very basic of needed utilities and water rates have risen in many places in America by 50% or more. And that is not even taking into consideration of the cost of food and its steep increases for even the lowest cost foods available.

Is this how a great country treats those of us who worked and paid into the system that paid for those who had retired while we were working and now that we are retired or will be soon, deny the same for us. We can give the richest people in this country tax cuts they do not need and that have failed to create jobs for those who need them. We can support people in Israel 20K per person per year and also provide them with better weapons that we have here and also fight their fights against neighboring countries because they refuse to learn how to live among other people. Why does America feel it is our responsibility to support Israel, are they not responsible for their own success or failure as a country and for over 60 years yet. Don’t see the GOP even mentioning about cutting their WELFARE. Egypt is 2nd in line for the most money sent to support them. If we are in such bad shape as these liar5s in congress, they would stop all foreign aid, wars, excessive weapons spending, close some of the over 700 military bases in other countries all over the world. Cut the Pentagon budget.And start charging these other countries for our services as the World’s Police Service to begin to balance the debts caused by the tax cuts for the rich. And cut out all the corporate welfare for Wall St. and the banks and cut all oil subsides, with billions in profits year after year, they can afford to pay for their exploration for oil. If they get these subsides, their finished product-gas, oil wax, and all by-products of oil should be made free to the taxpayers as we are the ones paying for this up front and also the cleanups for all their accidents, so if they get free money to produce their products at our expense, we are entitled to the end produced free of charge.

Better close the gates to this country and strip the Statue of Liberty of that sign that states to “Send us your poor and huddles masses yadah, yadah, yadha….

It has been the continual wet dream of all political reactionaries to destroy all parts of the FDR New Deal. This has been accomplished. Political concerns from the establishment parties has nothing to do with the citizens’ well being, but everything to do with the tyranny of money. Conason is correct about the use of the word “entitlements”, its a snarky appeal to personal greed, by claiming you are a tax payer victim. Most of those who buy into this actually believe that “government is the problem”, as the famous Hollywood, two-bit actor and spokesman so aptly put it.
It is difficult for the average citizen to grasp that their political leaders are morally bankrupt human beings.