Everything You Wanted to Know About Social Security But Couldn't Find in Your Local Paper

Add eRiposte to your list of Social Security sites. This is the Table of Contents for the site:

INTRODUCTION: How the Social Security system is set up in the United States and what it has accomplished

1. Facts on Social Security and Privatization

1.100 Social Security is Financially in Very Good Shape - it is not going "bankrupt" and is certainly not facing a "crisis"

1.100.1 The retirement of the Baby Boomers will not bankrupt Social Security

1.110 As years pass, the projected so-called "doomsday" on Social Security actually has been pushing out even farther; plus even at the so-called [fake] "doomsday" citizens will get 73-81% of the benefits they were promised even if we did NOTHING today   

1.120 The long-standing myth of a social security "crisis" is based on the projection that the economy and productivity will grow much slower in the future than it has in the past

1.130 What is really in crisis is the Federal Budget *excluding* Social Security - the Bush administration doesn't want people to know that massive Social Security surpluses are being used to finance the record deficits due to Bush's massive tax cuts for the super-rich and out-of-control spending on Iraq and GOP pet projects (contrary to Bush's 2000 campaign promises)

1.131 The programs that are really raising the prospects of bankruptcy and "crisis" (in a shorter time span) are President Bush's tax cuts and the Big Pharma Welfare Bill, aka the Medicare Bill

1.132 Claims that Social Security has an "unfunded liability" of "$11 trillion" are outright deception

1.140 By the definition of "bankruptcy" used by privatization proponents, our military is "bankrupt" TODAY (not in 2042 or 2052) - why are there no calls to "reform" the military? Medicare is far more of a problem - how come reform advocates are not spending sleepless nights proposing solutions to that?

1.150 The Social Security trust fund is not a "myth"; dishonest privatization proponents use the "myth" term when convenient, while dropping it when inconvenient

1.155 Some Republicans' claim that the U.S. Government is unlikely or not obligated to pay back the borrowings from the Social Security Trust Fund is downright illegal

1.160 Correcting Social Security's projected shortfall is actually easier now than it would have been in past decades

1.170 The number of workers per retiree says little or nothing about the financial robustness of Social Security; yet this metric is frequently used to mislead people into believing the hoax of a social security "crisis" 

1.175 Some say that current projections on Social Security solvency underestimate increases in life-expectancy. However, the data to-date suggests otherwise

1.180 The progressive nature of how benefits are paid is more than fair considering it is intended to offset the regressive nature of the social security tax structure 

1.181 Proposals to index the first social security payment to inflation rather than wages is nothing more than an underhanded attempt to usurp taxpayer funds and deny retirees their due

1.190 Even if social security taxes were to be increased to bridge the manageable gap expected decades hence, workers wages will continue to increase

1.200 Privatization of Social Security would mean a steep drop in program efficiency and sharp increases in administrative fees, leading to significantly lower benefits

1.210 Privatization requires trillions of dollars in additional borrowing (in addition to benefit cuts) and speculative investment of individual's funds in the stock market - the makings of another Bush driven disaster

1.220 Privatization proponents often use highly inflated/exaggerated stock market return projections to push for privatization

1.225 Bush administration claim that the current social security system is "inherently unfair" to African Americans is another outright lie

1.230 The Bush privatization proposal, as it stands, would lead to steep benefit cuts for retirees and poverty for many retirees; younger workers, women and minorities would be impacted the most

1.240 The Bush privatization proposal, as it stands, would also lead to steep benefit cuts for non-retired workers drawing insurance for disability or their families drawing insurance upon the death of the workers

1.250 The Bush privatization proposal will be another exercise in class warfare - doling out massive corporate welfare to key campaign contributors in Wall Street at the expense of the poor and middle class

1.260 The Bush privatization proposal could actually reduce economic growth and thereby further endanger social security

1.270 Bush-style privatization has been tried before in other countries, with costly or disastrous results

1.280 Private accounts would likely require a new Government bureaucracy 

1.290 Private accounts would very likely not protect workers from lower benefits due to inflation

1.300 While giving individuals "choice" sounds good in theory, one needs to be sure that individuals are actually able to exercise the "choice" in a manner that doesn't reduce their benefits; after all, the vast majority of individual investors are not market experts and what investors get when they retire will depend on when they retire

1.400 It is quite likely that the underhanded objective of the Bush privatization proposal is the eventual phasing out of Social Security

2. Where does your Senator or Congressman/Congresswoman stand on Social Security? 

3. Misleading Coverage or Fabrications on Social Security by many U.S. media outlets (including, in some cases, egregious, propagandistic stenography on behalf of the Bush administration)

4. A sample of the Bush administration's and Republican politicians' mendacity/misleading on Social Security

4.1 Bush continues his long-standing tradition of fake "town-hall" meetings using pre-screened die-hard supporters and scripted exchanges to deceive public on Social Security

4.2 Bush administration attempts to use non-partisan government workers (in Social Security Administration) to push partisan, dishonest privatization scam onto Americans

4.3 Bush administration misrepresents quotes from Clinton administration to push their agenda

4.4 Bush's crisis-mongering on Social Security is not new. In 1978 he claimed Social Security would go bust in 10 years -- without privatization.

4.5 Even some Conservatives/Republicans dismiss the notion of a "crisis" in Social Security

5. Fraudulent Republican Front Groups spread the fake "crisis" rhetoric and dishonest propaganda

6. Republican misleaders hope that Americans will be gullible enough to swallow their "framing" and denials of "privatization"

7. George W. Bush's flip-flops on Social Security: A Promise Made is a Promise Unkept

APPENDIX: How should the Democratic Party respond to the fake crisis being propagated through the media?

If you or anyone you know could use some of those issues explained for them, send them to eRiposte. ThereIsNoCrisis.com is still the site for daily developments on both sides of BushCo's drive to dismantle Social Security.