Vox Populi:

We took a look at many posts under a Yahoo story about Bush's proposal to change Social Security, White House Eyes Social Security Accounts. Here are some of our favorites, the last one being the most heartfelt: (as posted, with spelling and other errors)

• Will money be guaranteed? If it is guaranteed I don't care what the govt does with it. If it isn't then it's a money grabbing sham by bush.
• Bush won't be happy 'till Granny is living in a doorway and scrounging through Dumpsters for food.
  
  61 million Americans are STUPID and get what they deserve. However, they are taking the rest of us down with them
• Republican Logis is so Bizarre
  Repub Leadership: You Social Security rate of return is a pittance. It's only 1%. (a lie, BTW)
  
  Repub Ditto-Monkey: I believe you, and I am upset.
  
  Repub Leadership: So we will cut your promised benefits by 40%, okay?
  
  Repub Ditto-Monkey: Yes sir.
• What a Shell Game! Repubs trained their sheep to say that Social Security is a "Ponzi Scheme." It's not, but that's what Repubs were trained to say.
  
  And now Repubs are saying, "You know all that extra money you paid over the past twenty years to make SS solvent into the future? We gave it to the wealthy in the form of tax cuts, and we can't raise taxes on the wealthy to redeem the money they borrowed, so we'll have to cut your benefits.
  
  What a shell game.
• Bush payoff to Wallst. sucker play 2U I did the research. This is the best gov't program where no one takes advantage. Not the gov't, or its employees, not suede shoe hustlers on Wallst, not "privatizers" who hope to get their hands on the loot. Right now, they can't and that's the problem, isn't it? The biggest fund in the world is hard to resist. Wake up! You and I are being sacked by our own ignorance and the lack of integrity repeatedly demonstrated by this gang of thieves and liars in the White House.
• If You Want This, Fine But don't come crawling back to those of us who told you better, begging for a tax subsidized bailout after the Republican con you like they did with the Savings and Loan Debacle of the late 80's ...
• 1ST STEPS OF GOP GOAL TO END SS The more that people are set up to be responsible for their own retirement, the more quickly the GOP can faze out SS entirely. It will take place over years but eventually will be fazed out completely, however individuals and employers will still have to make payments. What will be missing will the govt.'s involvement. I think that's sad because you just know some people will mishandle their individual funded accounts and become homeless in old age.
• What's stopping the GOV from Investing SS money in social security now? A Law, why congress can change that. Why not benefit everyone if putting money in the stock market is going to be such a windfall?
• LET'S PRIVATIZE EVERYTHING Why not just close the doors of the White House and say, "Hey folks you are on your own. No govt. programs whatsoever and no taxes either". We can all just go back to fighting each other for what we can get, and the losers will die on the streets. What will also happen is there won't be any jackasses running this country. I like that part the best and would be willing to take my chances without their help just to see them lose their power over us.
• Privatize Auto Insurance What's your rate of return on your Auto insurance?
  
  Your family's rate of return?
  
  The nation's average rate of return?
  
  Yeah people I hear ya! Why don't we simply skip purchasing auto insurance and just start a private savings account in case of an accident? Just think of all that money making money and the best part is we can cash in when we get to old to drive!
  
  Say to really get the ball rollin let's privitize fire insurance! Your house burns down NO PROBLEM you have your own private account! Why we can have our own unemployment, sick days, vacations and even buy our very own tax cuts!
  
  Sounds too good to be true? Well for 2 trillion dollars I might give you the details.
• SS a phony crisis George Bush is like a cushion in that he bears the imprint of whoever just sat on him. In this case he has the ass print of Grover Norquist. If Bush is in to do some fiscal crusadering he might want to consider Medicare, his perscription drug plan, and the now 7.500,000,000,000 deficit. Social Security is backed by a trust fund that is solvent for many years to come. Cons like to point out that the trust fund is full of IOU's but this is based on the idea that Government bonds are IOU's They are not and the Chinese hold about 617 billion worth and the Japanese about 800 billion. If bonds are bad then this whole country is in big trouble way beyond anything in Social Security. Social Security is more efficiently run by the public sector as administration takes up about 1% of it. There is no way the private sector is going to work for that low a commision. To privatize it would be far more expensive (between 1 and 2 trillion) than to decrease benefits over the years to come or maintain current rates . Privatizing it is an asinine idea in light of the other dangers facing this economy ; an idea brought to you by the guy who brought you Arbusto Energy and other failed business, no chold left behind and the Iraq war
• Why is the such a priority for Bush? We know that Bush is totally committed to the business community and is very loyal to his friends there.
  
  Having more private accounts in social security will benefit investment bankers, big brokerage houses, and other big supporters of Bush.
  
  Anyone who thinks that Bush is pushing this as hard as he is because he wants to benefit the American people just doesn't know Bush. He is totally corporate. Period.
• Get educated. Ask any SS recipient Ask your ma, ask your pa. Ask grandma, grandpa or that disabled person down the block. They will tell you how important this last vestige of FDR is. Paid everything expected of it since 1937. So now we have the guy who told us we had to fight Iraq becuz' it was a threat, lying thru his teeth, let's face it, what could Iraq do with overflights of 2/3 of his country, beaten to a pulp in 1991 by half the world and sanctioned for 12 years do to us? So, now, they cry "Wolf" again, don't be fooled. Educated yourself in the library. Find out just how good this is. That WallSt. will tear it apart even if it were intended to do any good which it isn't. Why do I say that? Because you can't help a program by defunding it. That is what these jerks are telling you to do. And why? Because it pays off the wall st. campaign contributors, gives them a chance to rip it off. They can't do that now, can they? As far as these jerk rulers are concerned, they have plenty of $$ they've ripped off to be benefitted by dumping SS in the stock market, bound to increase its value, but not for the little guys. We are all being sacked, don't let them do it by going along. Read up and discuss with those who get it. They can't protect anyone once they start taking from it before retirement or disability. Wake up!
• ATTENTION YAHOO POSTERS! The time you spend here, writing cutsey little snide remarks to impress one another is WASTED!
  
  Put half an hour into writing a "too the point" note to your Congressman!!
  
  That will be far more productive, for everyone!! And, it is the only way for us to reclaim OUR GOVERNMENT.
  
  In case any of you have forgotten the fact...THIS IS OUR COUNTRY, AND OUR GOVERNMENT that rules and acts in OUR NAME! If you don't like the actions they take or propose to take...the stop them from doing it!
• WHAT AN OBSCENITY THEY ARE RED STATES CAUSED THIS CRAP, WHOLE NATION SUFFERS.
• Sucker Punch to Soc. Sec.. and you. Yeah, and I can back it up. I researched the issue. Soc. Sec. can pay to 2042 just as it is programmed to. CBO sez' to 2052. THE GOP never liked it, smacks of socialism. Guess they don't like insurance either. Both Soc. Sec. and insurance pay when a contingency occurs. In insurance a loss must occur. In Soc. Sec. you retire or are disabled. The money you pay in stays in the pool to earn interest. Right now, the fund has over $1.7 trillion. The GOP sez' yeah but that's in IOU's. So, are they saying they won't pay their own IOU's. Of course not. Unless you let them by showing enough public sentiment in their favor to allow their congressmen to vote for it and still keep their seats. They have the votes, but Congress is worried they will lose their seats. There are now over 47 million Americans receiving social security. It hasn't missed a payment since 1937 complete with cost of living increases built in. Only Medicare has a problem. But any problem can be easily remedied by increasing the taxable income cap from $87,000 to say, 92,000. There is no crisis at present or for another 30+ years. What do the GOP get? Happy campaign supporters from the wall street community who will get their hands on the largest fund in the world. They have been laying plans for this for years and it has nothing to do with a "crisis." Just like they sold Iraq to unknowing Americans they hope to sell this. To allow Americans to take their contributions out before the contingency will hurt everyone, and cause unjustified suffering particularly in the middle to lower classes. That is evil. 42% of retirees depend 100% upon Soc. Sec. for retirement. Listen to Pacifica.org on web, turn off the cablelies, no ads, real news, not smear, propaganda and lying. Wake up! We are all being sacked. If GOP wanted to help Soc. Sec. all they had to do was move some of that surplus over. Or forgo the "war" and occupation. Wake up! We are all being sacked!
• W Hand Is In Your Pocket Has been all along, but this one makes it official.
• THEIVERY Simply put, the President is stealing the birthright of all working Americans.
  
  Thank you Red State dimwits who support this criminal without even stopping to think he's playing you for a fool.
• ROBBIN' BUSH STEALS FROM POOR TO GIVE TO THE RICH! Just think back to his tax breaks...which he insists to have made permanent. Personally, my piddly $300 didn't amount to f'ing hill of beans!!
  
  Get your goddamned hands out of the Soc Sec trust fund, ALL YOU lying, thieving, creeps in Congress...and simply put, there won't BE a problem with Soc Sec!
  
  But the truth is, Bush is not interested in "saving Soc Sec"... He really wants to bankrupt the system, to save more dollars for his "base"...the wealthiest top 2% of this country...on the bogus assumption that if they get this additional funding, that they will create "more jobs".
  
  Bush is BOGUS! And his policies are TRASH!
  And anyone that believes for one moment that he has the best interest of the American middle class at heart, is deluded beyond redemption!
  
  DAMN YOU TO HELL MR. BUSH!

NOTE: A couple of posts above were by the same person (but we lost track of which and by who).

Clearly, people are alarmed. While reading Yahoo posts isn't a perfect measure of the zeitgeist, it sure looks as if raw emotion is being unleashed. For some, Social Security is all that they have (retiree or disabled) and the notion of losing it (or even a portion thereof) is terrifying. If the Democrats don't defend this program, they will have thrown away any claim to care about the average citizen.

posted by Quiddity at 1/05/2005 01:06:00 AM