BEGINNINGS
		..........At last, we're starting to get proposals to reform Social Security that are in the right direction, at least partially. ..........Of course, when George Jr. says he will put excess Social Security payments into individual investment accounts he is really just trying to win votes. We all know that. We also know that hardly any of the promises made during election campaigns ever go anywhere at all. They seldom result in changes, become laws or get through Congress. It's just political sales talk. ..........It looks like Bush has struck a chord with the public on this issue and you can count on him playing it for all it's worth. ..........Al Gore cannot reasonably argue against this proposal since the government, under his administration, has set up the federal employee's Thrift Savings Plan that is exactly the same thing Bush is talking about. But whoever said Gore was a reasonable man? Al Gore supports Clinton's latest idea to continue stealing entitlement overpayments in order to pay down the national debt. ..........The trouble with Bush's plan is that it still leaves control of the money in the hands of government. In the hands of the very same people who have been plundering Social Security's and all other entitlement excess/surplus payments for years. The very same people from both parties who have been robbing working Americans of two percent of their income, plus excess gas taxes, excess Medicare payments and so forth. Add them all up and the total stolen would probably be closer to five percent of your annual income. ..........The federal government has already proven conclusively that it cannot be trusted. Letting them keep control of "surplus" cash is equivalent to putting a repeat sex offender back on the streets without contrition or rehabilitation. ..........The only way around this is to put excess Social Security payments in the hands of people in the private sector. Even then, we would need to select people we could trust and make them accountable for everything they do to invest these funds wisely. In other words, we need to set up real trust funds in the private sector. Abandon the phony trusts the federal government sets up to withdraw from its general fund of taxpayer dollars. They have nothing to do with real trust. ..........The Cato Institute has long recommended privatizing Social Security, all of it. This is not necessary and a very expensive conversion. The Social Security Administration has done nothing wrong and has operated very efficiently, making all of its commitments to the retired and disabled on time. And they do this while operating on less than one percent of the Administration's annual budget. Leave the Administration alone, just privatize the Social Security trust fund. The latter would cost us practically nothing. ..........Of course, the pirates are not going to want to give up control of the money. Not simply because they might want to figure out ways to continue stealing it, but because it would set a precedent to eliminating their personal perks. They have used this nonmarketable bond system to set up too many benefits for themselves. ..........Of the 164 phony trust funds managed by the government, more than a hundred of them represent benefits for federal employees. Everyone working for the District of Corruption, from the president to postal workers, enjoys benefits from health care and retirement to special gift accounts that have been set up by simply awarding various trust funds nonmarketable bonds. No real cash is involved until someone needs to draw on these accounts. At that time, the cash is withdrawn from your annual income taxes in the Treasury's general fund. ..........In short, it's a con game that can only be played by the federal government. No criminal mind in the private sector could even begin to set up such a con. ..........Worst of all, it's not going to change unless you do something about it. These crooks are not going to give up their booty unless you let them know that you are wise to their crime and intend to punish them. The total stolen from you, by entitlement theft alone is now more than $2 trillion, 35 percent of the national debt. The national debt could be immediately reduced by 35 percent by simply eliminating nonmarketable bonds. Wiping them from the books. And it wouldn't hurt real Treasury securities one iota.