Bumbling Bush's Social Security Illusions
He saw huge surpluses in the Federal budget, so he gave it to the rich rather than pay down runaway federal debts. He saw Saudi terrorists threatening the U.S. so he invaded Afghanistan. He saw mushroom clouds in some miraculous way originating in Iraq.
Whatever hallucinogen George W. Bush is taking, it’s playing games with his mind again. Now he sees a disaster in the most solvent federal program—Social Security.
In 1978, Bush predicted the collapse of Social Security within 10 years. Of course, the vision-deficient simpleton was way off the mark.
Why fix the most solvent government program? The ship of state is full of holes. It’s taking on water fast. However, it is not as volatile as the private sector is. The glue holding the private sector together is massive deficit spending on an illegal war, and Asian banks in China, Japan, Singapore and others buying up that debt. Yes, Communism is propping up the world’s largest and most predatory capitalist.
President Bumbling Bush is an expert at destruction, not construction. In order to build a house, he must destroy a city block.
Bush needs to prop up his business friends, parasites and predators. He is more than willing to sacrifice the many for the benefit of the few. In his circles, profits have priority over people. Business has priority over the well-being of the nation.
As a former employee of the Social Security Administration and, later, the Internal Revenue Service, this author knows there are easy solutions to the presumptive problem.
Currently, Social Security taxes (FICA), or payroll taxes, are withheld from the first $90,000 in wages at a rate of 6.2%. That equals $5,580 per year for the highest contributor. Some corporate executives have paid their full FICA obligation by the end of the first workday of the year.
The employer matches the employee’s contribution.
Collecting payroll taxes on every dollar of wages can solve the problem easily. The average CEO of a top corporation is paid $6 million per year. That CEO is paid as if he does the work of 500 workers, yet he pays in only the portion one worker would pay. If the corporation can pay that much to one person, it surely can afford to pay payroll taxes on all wages.
Then reduce the amount paid to the biggest beneficiaries down to the employee’s portion each time Social Security outlays exceed the income. That way, the beneficiary always receives at least an amount equal to his contribution. The employer’s portion would compensate for shortfalls. When there is a surplus in the trust fund, the highest beneficiaries would have their checks increased accordingly.
Social Security is a pay-as-you-go program. It’s a flat tax. Current workers contribute the money that goes to current beneficiaries. Ideally, there would be no excess money in the Social Security trust fund.
Excess money becomes a problem when Republicans control the government. Republicans believe all money belongs to the rich people and can’t stop themselves from returning it when they find money laying around.
Ronald Reagan pushed through legislation that raised Social Security contributions. When Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, payroll taxes were 6.65% on the first $29,700 of wages. When he left office, the amounts were 7.51% of $48,000. That’s a 55% increase. That was and is the biggest tax increase in U.S. history, contrary to what the Republicans like to claim about Bill Clinton’s tax increase that balanced the budget for the first time since Lyndon Johnson’s last budget.
A payroll tax hits low and middle income earners the hardest. That’s why Reagan preferred it. It created a surplus of more than $1 trillion by the end of Reagan’s presidency—on paper at least.
What did the high priest of fiscal responsibility do with the money? He gave it to the wealthy. With payroll taxes rolling in from low income workers, Reagan seized the opportunity to give even more to his rich friends.
It took 200 years for this nation to run up a $1 trillion debt. It took Reagan one term to run up another trillion. For good measure, in his second term he added another trillion to the debt.
What does that mean to the average worker? The worker overpaid the money once in payroll taxes. Reagan gave it to the rich in the form of tax cuts. It must be replaced out of income taxes, most of which comes from the average worker. Since interest accrues on that money, the average worker also must pay the interest out of his income taxes. That slight of hand has the effect of each worker paying $3 into the fund and getting only one in return--if he is lucky.
Not only was it the biggest tax hike in history, it was one of the biggest cons in history. The people didn’t even know they had been mugged and raped. Why shouldn’t Bush commit the same crime if the victim isn’t going to complain?
When asked about his mathematical inadequacies, Reagan simplistically replied that “It’s just money we owe to ourselves.”
Who else is stealing from the Social Security Trust Fund? When Social Security was created in the 1930s, the method of collection was a significant issue. If people received the money, they would be reluctant to turn it over to Social Security or even refuse to do so. Therefore, withholding from wages was deemed to be the least imposing way of collection. That put some fiduciary responsibility on employers. A problem with corporations is that they are the super-citizens of the nation. For all intents and purposes, they are above the law. Their interests come first.
In America, the stick is used to get average people to work. The carrot is used to entice corporate executives to work. It takes huge salaries plus large bonuses to get American executives to work as the Japanese Minister of Finance pointed out. The high salaries also attract the most criminal elements of society. As one chant goes:
If you want to steal,
Don’t get a gun.
Charter yourself
A corporation.
As a corporation, you can steal with almost no chance of consequences. Even when there is a penalty, it seldom equals the amount originally stolen. Ivan Boesky stole over $600 million that can be traced. He spent a few months in a country club jail and paid $100 million in penalties. Who wouldn’t take a deal like that?
There is no incentive for a corporation to be honest, and every incentive to steal.
When Ronald Reagan deregulated the banking and savings and loan industries, the corporations interpreted it as an invitation to go forth and steal. Go forth and steal they did. Since most bank accounts are federally insured, deregulation cost taxpayers over $500 billion. S & L crime rush perpetrators ranged from Neal Bush (the current president’s brother) at Silverado Savings and Loan to Congressman Henry Hyde at Clyde Federal S & L in Chicago, Il. Neither criminal paid a penny in restitution or spent a day in jail. The story is the same for most other S & L crooks. Let the dumb working man pay the penalty.
So it should come as no surprise that the cream of American business sometimes don’t turn in the payroll and income taxes they withhold from their employees. Usually it is the small businesses that are insolvent or nearly insolvent that keep telling themselves prosperity is just around the corner. They finance their last months in part with the withholding collections. The courts have ruled that if the money was put into the business, the IRS can’t pursue criminal charges. In other words, if it is a super-citizen corporation doing the stealing, it’s not a crime according to our guardians of the law. If you want to steal without fear of going to jail, go into business.
Employees, including the business officers who unlawfully redirected the withholding funds, get credit toward Social Security benefits and collect as if the funds had been deposited with the IRS. This amounts to millions of dollars each year that are not paid in and an equivalent amount that is paid out.
Over 6 million people receive disability benefits from Social Security. If they have a family, the family can get an amount equal to that of the wage-earner. In cases of unexpected disaster or accidents that injure the wage-owner to the degree that he can’t do his job or a similar job, families can survive on Social Security benefits. What will happen to disability benefits if the Bush plan is implemented? I’m sure Bush hasn’t a clue and could care less about disabled people.
We can look at the S & L crisis and the deregulation of business in the 1980s for a clue as to how Social Security will fare under Republican tampering . Remember Worldcom, Enron, Tyco, Arthur Andersen, Adelphia, Dynergy, Global Crossing? They were just a few of the corporations caught in criminal activity made possible by deregulation and Republican tampering with the system.
Whatever hallucinogen George W. Bush is taking, it’s playing games with his mind again. Now he sees a disaster in the most solvent federal program—Social Security.
In 1978, Bush predicted the collapse of Social Security within 10 years. Of course, the vision-deficient simpleton was way off the mark.
Why fix the most solvent government program? The ship of state is full of holes. It’s taking on water fast. However, it is not as volatile as the private sector is. The glue holding the private sector together is massive deficit spending on an illegal war, and Asian banks in China, Japan, Singapore and others buying up that debt. Yes, Communism is propping up the world’s largest and most predatory capitalist.
President Bumbling Bush is an expert at destruction, not construction. In order to build a house, he must destroy a city block.
Bush needs to prop up his business friends, parasites and predators. He is more than willing to sacrifice the many for the benefit of the few. In his circles, profits have priority over people. Business has priority over the well-being of the nation.
As a former employee of the Social Security Administration and, later, the Internal Revenue Service, this author knows there are easy solutions to the presumptive problem.
Currently, Social Security taxes (FICA), or payroll taxes, are withheld from the first $90,000 in wages at a rate of 6.2%. That equals $5,580 per year for the highest contributor. Some corporate executives have paid their full FICA obligation by the end of the first workday of the year.
The employer matches the employee’s contribution.
Collecting payroll taxes on every dollar of wages can solve the problem easily. The average CEO of a top corporation is paid $6 million per year. That CEO is paid as if he does the work of 500 workers, yet he pays in only the portion one worker would pay. If the corporation can pay that much to one person, it surely can afford to pay payroll taxes on all wages.
Then reduce the amount paid to the biggest beneficiaries down to the employee’s portion each time Social Security outlays exceed the income. That way, the beneficiary always receives at least an amount equal to his contribution. The employer’s portion would compensate for shortfalls. When there is a surplus in the trust fund, the highest beneficiaries would have their checks increased accordingly.
Social Security is a pay-as-you-go program. It’s a flat tax. Current workers contribute the money that goes to current beneficiaries. Ideally, there would be no excess money in the Social Security trust fund.
Excess money becomes a problem when Republicans control the government. Republicans believe all money belongs to the rich people and can’t stop themselves from returning it when they find money laying around.
Ronald Reagan pushed through legislation that raised Social Security contributions. When Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, payroll taxes were 6.65% on the first $29,700 of wages. When he left office, the amounts were 7.51% of $48,000. That’s a 55% increase. That was and is the biggest tax increase in U.S. history, contrary to what the Republicans like to claim about Bill Clinton’s tax increase that balanced the budget for the first time since Lyndon Johnson’s last budget.
A payroll tax hits low and middle income earners the hardest. That’s why Reagan preferred it. It created a surplus of more than $1 trillion by the end of Reagan’s presidency—on paper at least.
What did the high priest of fiscal responsibility do with the money? He gave it to the wealthy. With payroll taxes rolling in from low income workers, Reagan seized the opportunity to give even more to his rich friends.
It took 200 years for this nation to run up a $1 trillion debt. It took Reagan one term to run up another trillion. For good measure, in his second term he added another trillion to the debt.
What does that mean to the average worker? The worker overpaid the money once in payroll taxes. Reagan gave it to the rich in the form of tax cuts. It must be replaced out of income taxes, most of which comes from the average worker. Since interest accrues on that money, the average worker also must pay the interest out of his income taxes. That slight of hand has the effect of each worker paying $3 into the fund and getting only one in return--if he is lucky.
Not only was it the biggest tax hike in history, it was one of the biggest cons in history. The people didn’t even know they had been mugged and raped. Why shouldn’t Bush commit the same crime if the victim isn’t going to complain?
When asked about his mathematical inadequacies, Reagan simplistically replied that “It’s just money we owe to ourselves.”
Who else is stealing from the Social Security Trust Fund? When Social Security was created in the 1930s, the method of collection was a significant issue. If people received the money, they would be reluctant to turn it over to Social Security or even refuse to do so. Therefore, withholding from wages was deemed to be the least imposing way of collection. That put some fiduciary responsibility on employers. A problem with corporations is that they are the super-citizens of the nation. For all intents and purposes, they are above the law. Their interests come first.
In America, the stick is used to get average people to work. The carrot is used to entice corporate executives to work. It takes huge salaries plus large bonuses to get American executives to work as the Japanese Minister of Finance pointed out. The high salaries also attract the most criminal elements of society. As one chant goes:
If you want to steal,
Don’t get a gun.
Charter yourself
A corporation.
As a corporation, you can steal with almost no chance of consequences. Even when there is a penalty, it seldom equals the amount originally stolen. Ivan Boesky stole over $600 million that can be traced. He spent a few months in a country club jail and paid $100 million in penalties. Who wouldn’t take a deal like that?
There is no incentive for a corporation to be honest, and every incentive to steal.
When Ronald Reagan deregulated the banking and savings and loan industries, the corporations interpreted it as an invitation to go forth and steal. Go forth and steal they did. Since most bank accounts are federally insured, deregulation cost taxpayers over $500 billion. S & L crime rush perpetrators ranged from Neal Bush (the current president’s brother) at Silverado Savings and Loan to Congressman Henry Hyde at Clyde Federal S & L in Chicago, Il. Neither criminal paid a penny in restitution or spent a day in jail. The story is the same for most other S & L crooks. Let the dumb working man pay the penalty.
So it should come as no surprise that the cream of American business sometimes don’t turn in the payroll and income taxes they withhold from their employees. Usually it is the small businesses that are insolvent or nearly insolvent that keep telling themselves prosperity is just around the corner. They finance their last months in part with the withholding collections. The courts have ruled that if the money was put into the business, the IRS can’t pursue criminal charges. In other words, if it is a super-citizen corporation doing the stealing, it’s not a crime according to our guardians of the law. If you want to steal without fear of going to jail, go into business.
Employees, including the business officers who unlawfully redirected the withholding funds, get credit toward Social Security benefits and collect as if the funds had been deposited with the IRS. This amounts to millions of dollars each year that are not paid in and an equivalent amount that is paid out.
Over 6 million people receive disability benefits from Social Security. If they have a family, the family can get an amount equal to that of the wage-earner. In cases of unexpected disaster or accidents that injure the wage-owner to the degree that he can’t do his job or a similar job, families can survive on Social Security benefits. What will happen to disability benefits if the Bush plan is implemented? I’m sure Bush hasn’t a clue and could care less about disabled people.
We can look at the S & L crisis and the deregulation of business in the 1980s for a clue as to how Social Security will fare under Republican tampering . Remember Worldcom, Enron, Tyco, Arthur Andersen, Adelphia, Dynergy, Global Crossing? They were just a few of the corporations caught in criminal activity made possible by deregulation and Republican tampering with the system.
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