Friday, February 19, 2010

Interesting News from Feb 18th

Yesterday, a plane crashed into a 7 story building, causing a horrible fire.

Interestingly enough, the building did not collapse into its own footprint at the speed of gravity.

Actually, it didn't collapse at all.

Obama is appointing a commission to balance the budget. EVERYTHING is on the table. Everything.

Except, of course, not military spending. But this most interesting omission was not mentioned in the news reports. They breathlessly announced that EVERYTHING was on the table, but somehow didn't think that the most logical item, the thing that the US spends over half its budget on, was even worth bringing up.

Just like the 9-11 Commission didn't consider explosives when investigating the collapse of the WTCs 1,2 and 7. The most obvious item never gets explored.

The talking heads did talk about Social Security a lot. It seems that the billions of dollars that US workers who make less than $75,000/year have been putting away for their old age is not off the table. That money, supposedly locked away in a trust fund, is now said to be gone.

And, apparently, there is no feeling among the ruling class that this particular debt must be paid.
Social Security is a flat tax on lower paid workers. We have been paying extra since 1986. There is no mention of this in the corporate media.

401 Ks lost $5 trillions in worker's retirement funds last year, an average of 25% from each 401K. There is no mention of this in the corporate media. Even more amazing, private funds are held up as an alternative to public funds for our retirements. But public funds are being used to repay lost investments for the rich.

Obama was chosen to do what Bush could not - refuse to repay the Social Security Trust Fund to the workers who have contributed all these years.

They call it "entitlements", as if being entitled to being paid back is something wrong.

Amazing.

And the most amazing thing is that they will probably get away with it.

Because the liberals who would fight Bush just want to "give Obama a chance".

7 comments:

Lukiftian said...

It's a good thing he didn't pack his plane with ANFO otherwise all there'd be left is a crater.

Pangolin said...

Millions upon millions of elderly, like my mother, are paying mortgages on their homes with Social Security payments and using their savings and/or pensions to live on. If Social Security gets cut off they will be forced to default on those loans en-masse. Then they will move in with whatever living and working children they may have and make them miserable. The remainder would be reduced to begging in the streets.

The three WTC building are the only large, steel-framed buildings ever to fall into their footprints due solely to fire A fact that seems to escape every engineer in the world.

The government is working desperately to prop up corporate capitalism and it cannot be done. The planet doesn't have the resources and the people are bled dry. Eventually there will be riots. The Teabaggers are going to be shocked as hell when other white people side with minorities against them and the corporados.

Anonymous said...

Good blog and like Pangolin's blog too.

David G. said...

Sheeple is a good term. While they are being screwed by the rich all they do is bleat.

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

オテモヤン said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

David G - Scott Adams says there is a reason businessmen wear wool suits.

Wage Laborer: Actually social security has been part of the general fund since LBJ wanted to make it look like the deficit was lower than it is.

wagelaborer said...

Social Security was combined for accounting purposes in the 60s for the reasons you mention.

However, it was a pay-as-you-go system at the time.

Greenspan informed the baby boomers in the 80s that they, and only they, had to put extra into a fund because there were too many for future generations to support. Which is an absurdity, since workers have increased their productivity immensely since then.

The trust fund was meant to be used up by the time the baby boomers died. Now they're screaming about 2044 and how the fund will be gone.

Well, duh! How many baby boomers will be around by then?