D-Day For Social Security

by John Hawkins | August 19, 2009 11:17 am

Over at Gateway Pundit[1], Jim Hoft posted this video of the Democrats giving themselves a standing ovation for blocking George Bush’s attempt to reform Social Security:

From there, Hoft goes on to note this story[2]:

Social Security could face a deficit within two years,” U.S. Rep. Spencer Bachus predicted here Tuesday. “The situation is much worse than people realize, especially because of the problems brought on by the recession, near depression.

…”That’s not been on the board — people don’t seem to know that,” Bachus, the ranking member of the House Committee on Financial Services, said in a wide-ranging interview with the Tuscaloosa News Editorial Board. “What this recession has done to Social Security is pretty alarming.

The not-so-secret truth that so many people seem to be unaware of is that all the Social Security money that has been paid in previously? It has all been spent. Every last dime.

They can talk about how the money is in government bonds all day long, but it’s meaningless. Why? Because how do they pay off the bonds? Since there is no money set aside to pay it off, they have to use tax dollars or borrow the money. In other words, it’s an accounting gimmick designed to sucker people because the money used to pay off Social Security comes from exactly the same place that the money used to pay for welfare, the stimulus bill, and everything else comes from.

Now some people may think “Well, so what if Social Security runs in the red? Everything runs in the red these days. If they try to change it, older American will revolt.”

The problem with that thinking is that what we’re doing is unsustainable. A country can get away with borrowing money for a temporary emergency, but no nation can permanently mooch ever larger amounts of money to pay their day-to-day bills without having to face a terrible reckoning. When the money finally dries up — and unless we change course, it will — Social Security will be a particularly tempting place to make cuts because they can wipe out trillions of dollars in obligation with the stroke of a pen.

We should have been dealing with the problems inherent in Social Security a decade ago, if not sooner, because it would have made the changes easier, more gradual, and less traumatic on everyone involved. Instead, we’ll inevitably end up with enormous tax increases and/or dramatic cuts, not to make the program stable, but merely to kick the can down the road a few years so some other group of politicians can deal with the crisis.

What this tells us is that we don’t just need more Republicans or less liberals in Congress, we need a better class of men — people who are more civic minded who care more about serving their country than keeping a great job. Until we have it, we’ll have politicians sowing the wind and leaving it to others to reap the whirlwind in their place.

Endnotes:
  1. Gateway Pundit: http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2009/08/dems-cheered-blocking-social-security.html
  2. this story: http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2009/08/dems-cheered-blocking-social-security.html

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