ANALYZE THIS
ENRON VS. UNCLE SCAM
Here's the Enron version of venture capitalism: You have two cows. You sell three of them to your publicly listed company using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows. The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island company secretly owned by the majority shareholders. They then sell the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company. The annual report says that the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more. (from Chuck Muth's Charmuth)

Here's the government's version of a surplus: You overcharge workers payroll taxes way beyond what is needed to pay people now retired. Take these extra billions and spend them on pork barbecues for fat cats like Enron. Tell the workers you just borrowed the money. Better yet, tell them you are keeping hands off their entitlement. Keep an account of all the billions you stole. Tell the workers it's a "trust fund." Keep it separate from the real trust you've got for your own retirement. Add annual interest to the worker's debit black hole account by adding more debt notes every year, after all, it doesn't cost anything to do this. If and when they want to draw on their account, tell them you will make the "tough decisions" to either (1) raise taxes (2) borrow honestly in their name, or (3) stop throwing so many barbecues. If they get wise, start a war.

Analyze this, it’s the debit black hole account right from the bank, the US Treasury’s Monthly statement:
Does that look like they're setting anything aside? Keeping it safe for you? Debt is debt folks and that's where it's recorded. There's no two ways about it.

Gone, as fast as it comes in. Spent, month-by-month, day-by-day, as fast as the surplus payroll taxes come into the Treasury's General Fund. While politicians tell you differently, the cash is already gone and creditied to debt. By their own books, there is no cash to be saved. What more proof do you need?

Last year the pirates stole $98.7 billion from Social Security. Then they added $64 billion in interest against the $1.007 trillion held at the close of fiscal 2000. A total increase of $162.7 billion for you and your children to pay again someday.

Without "borrowing from the public" there is no other reason for the national debt to go up. And it is going up. Last year, fiscal 2001, the national debt rose $133.5 billion, even after they paid-off $66 billion of "available" investor debt.

Make sure you vote for these guys so we can get screwed some more. Get out there and vote for whoever got the most money and support from fat cats like Enron, Time-Warner (AOL), Ted Turner (CNN), General Electric (NBC), Westinghouse (CBS) and the rest of the Oligarchy. Long live the New World Order.

Addendum

If you're having trouble interpreting the table above, you might need to know that the so-called Social Security Trust Fund is composed of two parts. The Federal Old Age & Survivors Insurance Trust Fund (FAO&SI) established in 1937 when payroll taxes kicked in and workers were contributing one percent of their salaries and The Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund established in the late Fifties.

Debt is not recorded in these accounts until after the cash has been spent elsewhere. It is spent as fast as it comes into the US Treasury. Annual interest is awarded just as fast. And it’s figured on a five-year model of the interest paid honest long-term bonds.

For some unknown reason, the government's fiscal year runs from the first of October to the end of September. For their first year, new presidents operate under a budget left by the last administration.

There is no pile of cash set aside to tempt the pirates. Congress and the Administration have decided where this extra "off budget" money will be spent and they decided years in advance of its receipt. They have Budget, Finance, Tax and Ways & Means Committees working on these budgets all the time. Plus the help of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), General Accounting Office (GAO), and The Office of Management and Budgets (OMB), all devoted to anticipating and allocating these moneys.

The Social Security Trust Fund stands at One Trillion, Two Hundred and Twelve Billion, Seven Hundred Million and change as of December 31, 2001. All debt to be repaid by you and your children under the Pay-It-Again, Sam scam. You can follow this monthly at the Treasury's Bureau of Public Debt web pages or posted to the Taxpayers Union for Financial Freedom where the table above is kept under "Important Numbers."

The federal government learned how to exploit these entitlements in 1983, the last time Social Security was thought to be in big trouble. Raising payroll taxes far beyond what was necessary came about under the direction of Alan Greenspan's Commission to study the situation, although Daniel Patrick Moynihan (Co-Chair of the present commission) claims that he and Bob Dole (another lifer) came up with the idea after the commission deadlocked.

Remember this the next time you hear talking heads, politicians, or bureaucrats talking about some pile of Social Security money stashed away to play with like Scrooge McDuck.

P.S.

If you look closely at the table above, you will notice that in August, 2001, the account actually went down. This so surprised me, I called the Treasury to see if Social Security had cashed-in some of its bogus debit bonds. I was told that because the long Labor Day weekend started on Saturday, September 1st, and ran through Monday, September 3rd, the day the retired and disabled receive their monthly doll, checks had been sent out early, in August. In effect, this is like cashing-in some holdings by temporarily taking more cash than usual from the General Fund but repaying it on September fourth, fifth, or shortly thereafter.