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Labor Targets Angle On Her Social Security Phaseout Stance
Senior citizens demonstrating outside a Sharron Angle campaign office
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Democrats and their allies in the Nevada Senate race have been gearing up to make Sharron Angle's position on phasing out Social Security and Medicare a big issue in the campaign.
The Alliance for Retired Americans, an AFL-CIO-affiliated group, has been staging a series of events of senior citizens throughout the state. An event was held outside of an Angle campaign office late last week, and a demonstration also occurred at the state Republican headquarters this week. Another event was also held Wednesday, at the Cambridge Community Center in Las Vegas, and another event is set for Thursday in Sparks.
We asked Alliance spokesperson Laura Markwardt about the organization's push going forward. "It's definitely a big issue for Nevada and nationally, as the senior population grows in this country," said Markwardt. "Sharron Angle's stances are obviously -- she's come out and said some very abrasive things, has some dangerous plans and would like to dismantle Social Security and Medicare."
During the primary campaign, Angle said that she wanted to phase out the two programs, for something private -- which the Reid campaign has already made into a TV ad. She also said that while details would have to be worked out on the manner of implementation for privatization, "The idea of privatizing and getting out of Medicare and Social Security is not up for grabs."
Since winning the primary, however, she has been finessing her views: "Well, that's nonsense. I have always said we need to make the lockbox a lockbox, put the money in there for our senior citizens. They came here in good faith paying into a system and Harry Reid has put an IOU in for 24 years. He [Reid] has been raiding Social Security. What we need to do is personalize Social Security so the government can no longer raid it."
Reid campaign spokesman Kelly Steele gave us this: "Sharron Angle's dangerous and extreme agenda to kill Social Security makes George W. Bush look reasonable and moderate. Angle isn't talking about the privatization schemes that were floated in 2005, she's talking about eliminating the program entirely. That's so far out of the mainstream that even top Republicans can't run away from her fast enough. Given Sen. Reid's strong record of fighting to protect and strengthen Social Security, versus Sharron Angle's radical plan to abolish it, Nevadans will definitely be presented with a clear choice on the issue in this campaign."
Here is a local TV news segment from Friday, showcasing one of the demonstrations:
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It's Pat
June 17, 2010 11:43 AM
This issue and Angle's position on it definitely deserves attention. Hopefully this group will cause people to take a closer look.
Unfortunately, the "liberallll" media can't ask Angle about it, she's in hiding.
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ericf
June 17, 2010 1:36 PM
Social Security isn't being raided. It has a surplus, the surplus has to be invested somewhere, and it's gone into treasury bonds. These are the safest investments in existence. People who are retired or near retirement are advised to invest in them because of their safety. Social Security is actually a major holder of federal debt, and the federal government has never missed a debt payment since the Constitution went into effect. The pretense of a "raid" comes from counting Social Security revenues with the general treasury, thereby masking the size of the deficit. It's dishonest accounting since the treasury can't use Social Security surpluses, just borrow them. But it doesn't endanger Social Security.
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allenwsmithphd
June 17, 2010 7:35 PM in reply to ericf
Social Security has been raided ever since the surplus revenue began to flow in during the second Reagan term. As of today, approximately $2.5 trillion in Social Security revenue, that is supposed to be in the trust fund, has been embezzled by the government and used to finance tax cuts, wars, and other government programs. I have been trying to expose the great Social Security scam for more than a decade, and I have published four books on the subject. On the back cover of my latest book, "The Big Lie: How Our Government Hoodwinked the Public, Emptied the Social Security Trust Fund, and caused The Great Economic Collapse," I have quoted the following words from Senator Reid.
"...on that chart in emblazoned red letters is what has been taking place here, embezzlement. During the period of growth we have had during the past 10 years, the growth has been from two sources. One, a large credit card with no limits on it, and, two, we have been stealing money from the Social Security recipients of this country."--Senator Harry Reid, Speech on Senate Floor, October 9, 1990
Twenty years ago, Senator Reid was one of the most vocal critics of the government's systematic raiding of the trust fund. Unfortunately, the policy has continued unchanged to this day, but Senator Reid long ago abandoned his efforts to end it. How could Senator Reid abandon his principles and discontinue speaking out against the raiding? How can he say today that Social Security is solvent for decades when he knows better than anyone else that the government has spent the $2.5 trillion for non-Social Security purposes?
To learn more, please visit my website at www.thebiglie.net
Allen W. Smith, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics, Emeritus
Eastern Illinois University
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allenwsmithphd
June 17, 2010 9:27 PM
The hard fact is that every dime of the $2.5 trillion in surplus Social Security revenue, generated by the 1983 payroll tax hike, has been spent on wars and other government programs. Every month, for the past 25 years, the total receipts from the payroll tax have been split two ways. First, benefits for current retirees are paid from the Social Security revenue. Then, all remaining Social Security revenue, not needed to pay that month’s benefits, are deposited into the general fund and become indistinguishable from other general fund revenue.
Not a single dime of payroll tax revenue has ever been saved and earmarked for the payment of future benefits. To put it bluntly, the government has “borrowed,” “embezzled,” or “stolen” every penny of the $2.5 trillion of surplus revenue that was supposed to be saved and invested. I consider this to be the greatest fraud ever perpetrated on the American people by their government. I have been trying to expose this awful truth for more than a decade, and some courageous people were trying to expose it even before I stumbled onto the scam in 1999.
On October 13, 1989, Senator Ernest Hollings (D-SC) issued the following warning in a speech on the Senate floor.
“…the most reprehensible fraud in this great jambalaya of frauds is the systematic and total ransacking of the Social Security trust fund ..in the next century…the American people will wake up to the reality that those IOUs in the trust fund vault are a 21st century version of Confederate bank notes.”
A year later, on October 9, 1990 Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) made a similar warning in a Senate speech. He said:
“…on that chart in emblazoned red letters is what has been taking place here, embezzlement. During the period of growth we have had during the past 10 years, the growth has been from two sources. One, a large credit card with no limits on it, and, two, we have been stealing money from the Social Security recipients of this country.”
On January 21, 2005, David Walker, the Comptroller General of the GAO, tried to make it clear to everyone that the trust fund contained no real assets. He said:
“There are no stocks or bonds or real estate in the trust fund. It has nothing of real value to draw down.”
If anyone has any remaining doubts about whether or not the trust fund contains real assets, those doubts should be removed by the following statement from the 2009 Social Security Trustees Report:
“Neither the redemption of trust fund bonds, nor interest paid on those bonds, provides any new net income to the Treasury, which must finance redemptions and interest payments through some combination of increased taxation, reductions in other government spending, or additional borrowing from the public.”
I urge everyone who cares about the future of Social Security to please visit my website at www.thebiglie.net to learn more about Social Security and my efforts to expose the scam. Excerpts from my latest book, “THE BIG LIE: How Our Government Hoodwinked the Public, Emptied the S.S. Trust Fund, and caused The Great Economic Collapse,” are posted on the site. Please feel free to download them.
Allen W. Smith, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics Emeritus
Eastern Illinois University
Website: www.thebiglie.net
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July 13, 2010 5:57 PM
The more relevant quote from that actuary report of 2009 is in the summary:“The deficits will be made up by redeeming trust fund assets until reserves are exhausted in 2037, at which point tax income would be sufficient to pay about three fourths of scheduled benefits through 2083. ”
As for the quotation you provide which justifies your stated opinions. It is under the section, “Why is Reform to Improve the Social Security and Medicare Financial Imbalances Needed?” the 2nd half of the second paragraph after chart E:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:SlW_wLmlF5kJ:www.ssa.gov/OACT/TRSUM/index.html+%22Neither+the+redemption+of+trust+fund+bonds%22&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a
Furthermore, there is something else about the quote that you took out of context that I would like to address. For the sake of fairness, here is the quotation you provided from the actuarial report: “Neither the redemption of trust fund bonds, nor interest paid on those bonds, provides any new net income to the Treasury, which must finance redemptions and interest payments through some combination of increased taxation, reductions in other government spending, or additional borrowing from the public.”
The context from which you took that quote was saying that the trust fund investment and the interest from those investments cannot be considered “increased taxation.”
That's what "provides any new net income to the Treasury" means.
You used that quotation out of context to supplement your own agenda.
You and the other biased agendistas out there in the blogosphere. Do a google on the first phrase of that quotation, “Neither the redemption of trust fund bonds”. Use the quotations. Very interesting, is it not?
Taking quotes out of context, hmm, is this how you pursue and honest understanding of this life, or just how you pursue a biased agenda?
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