At a White House news conference Tuesday, July 11, President Bush took the opportunity to brandish the fact that the budget deficit this year will not be as high as last year's. It’s going to be less than the $423 billion he and Congress planned. Isn’t that wonderful? Every year should be an election year.
Bush also promised to somehow reduce entitlement spending. Things are already out of hand with private sector companies and local governments cutting benefits in their own retirement and health care benefits. And this is happening before the supposed “baby boomers” reach early retirement age.
CNN, the network that has the audacity to bill itself as “the most trusted name in news,” immediately criticized Bush’s deficit comments with a rebuttal from Daryn Kagan who just had to ask “what happened to the surpluses of 2000?” the last year of the Clinton administration.
She isn’t the only democrat to level this challenge and she certainly will not be the last, but these news nitwits never tell you where that “surplus” came from and probably do not have the brains to find out what accounted for a $237 billion surplus in 2000.
The truth is that $87 billion came from income tax overpayments which, during his first year in office, Bush quite rightly cut and they went mostly to the wealthy who pay the most in income taxes. It’s this income tax cut that’s claimed to be benefiting him now.
But $149.8 billion (round to $150 billion) came from entitlement overcharges with Social Security leading the pack with a surplus of $94.5 billion. In other words, every working stiff in
And these entitlement surpluses are still rolling into federal government coffers. They haven’t stopped, although they’ve been reduced somewhat by our sagging economy. Last year alone, payroll taxes for Social Security produced an $86.5 billion surplus for the government to steal and spend elsewhere (see chart). So far, the Bush administration has robbed Social Security of $486 billion.
And it’s these public entitlements that Bush is now promising to cut. Reducing benefits the government would otherwise have to pay out only increases the booty/surplus for Bush to spend elsewhere.
CLEAN YOUR OWN HOUSE GEORGE
For the moment, let’s set aside the fact that the budget deficit never includes the money that the government is going to “borrow” (read steal) from many entitlements like Social Security or “invest” in bogus nonmarketable treasuries (read same-o stealing). Money that would put the planned deficit well above $500 billion and with this year’s savings would simply reduce it to their original prediction.
Let’s also forget, for the moment, that the pirates of
What should really piss-off everyone in the country is that while private sector employers and local governments are cutting retirement and pension plans, reducing health care benefits or increasing your contributions, the federal government is living high on the hog with your money. The largest employer in the country, the federal government is providing lavish retirement and unlimited health care for its millions of employees, including politicians.
To see this, all anyone has to do is follow the U.S. Treasury’s Monthly Statement where the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), the second largest entitlement, is shown with a shortfall of several billion every month of the year. They are constantly drawing down on the General Fund of taxpayer dollars in order to meet commitments to retired fed people. Then in September, the close of their fiscal year, they receive a mysterious bonus of enough nonmarketable bonds to put them ahead for the year – the program increases its holdings for no apparent reason except to avoid bankruptcy. These bonds are simply dumped into the account and are not part of the annual interest paid against last year’s balance which keeps increasing because of this bonus. As an insurance business, FERS stinks.
Even worse, the Federal Employees Life & Health plan never has any income at all, no contributions from employees, a zero income. Yet, it draws millions per month from the General Fund of taxpayer dollars and, to top it off, the more that’s drawn the more the fund increases because they count the “draw” as a surplus. How’s that for a bottomless horn-of-plenty? Communists would be envious and welcome them to the brotherhood.
On the same day that Bush announced his idea to curb entitlement spending you’ve already paid for, the Washington Post’s “Federal Diary” from the Office of Personnel Management published an article titled “OPM Focuses on Retirement Planning” which you might want to read because it tells federal employees how to plan their retirement.
How long are we going to tolerate this “let them eat cake” extortion and megalomania?
POST SCRIPT
On the same Tuesday, CNN covered another story that might provide some insights into the working mind of the last cowboy. The article appeared in the “Health” section and was titled “Mystic mushrooms spawn magic event” released by the Journal of Psychopharmacology. Using our tax dollars, the government has been sponsoring experiments with psilocybin that scientists say “may also provide a way to study what happens in the brain during intense spiritual experiences.” Does Bush have cow pastures on his ranch?
