Social Security -- Retraction
SNOPES, Cyberland -- Well, unless the people at Snopes.com are liars or Democrats (who are not to be trusted under any circumstances), it appears that a recent article on Social Security reported by Hawkeye® was nothing less than an E-mail hoax. You can get all the facts here.
Therefore, in the best journalistic tradition, the humble reporter bowed on bended knee, retracted his story and admitted his failure to fully investigate his sources before going to press. Although it may be too soon to tell, it does not appear that any injuries resulted from his error (except perhaps his bruised ego). "It is probably wise that he chose to get this admission out of the way quickly", said Dan Rather. "He might be able to avoid early retirement by becoming a more sympathetic figure with his Viewers".
Subsequent investigation has revealed that Marge in MI actually got the story from an unsavory character who forwaded it on to her via fax machine from a Kinko's store in Texas. "I just took the story and ran with it", said Hawkeye®. "It looked so real and I wanted to believe it", he continued. "This will never happen again... From now on I'll just stick with satire so I can keep all of my facts straight."
posted by Hawkeye® -- Wednesday, May 18, 2005
5 Comments
5 Comments:
Not so fast there, journalist!
Is the fact that the president was a Republican when a bill was passed by congress (overladen with Democrats) make the Republicans responsible for the bill?
A little more research may indeed prove MargeinMI to have been more right than wrong.
Or "Marge lied, people sighed".
beerme, kajun
Yeah, from the link I provided I love the following....
Social Security payroll taxes are currently bringing in more revenue than the program pays out in benefits, a surplus
that is projected to continue until approximately 2016...
The surplus is used to purchase special issue Treasury bonds. The Social Security surplus used to purchase the bonds becomes general revenue and is spent on the government's annual general operating expenses. What remains behind in the trust fund is the bonds, plus an interest payment attributed to the bonds (also paid in bonds, rather than cash). Government bonds are, in essence, a form of IOU. They are a promise against future tax revenue. When the bonds become due, the government will have to repay them out of general revenue.
In other words.... the gubmint takes our money, which we thought was for us, gives us an IOU, and uses the money to buy bonds for the gubmint, from the gubmint. The gubmint collects interest on the bonds, which is paid for by the gubmint. The interest the gubmint collects is used to pay for General Expenses from the General Fund (i.e., it is not in a "Trust Fund" despite what they say). Then, the gubmint has to pay back the debts it owes to the gubmint with money from the General Fund...... Huh??
Where's Wilma Ponzi to explain this stuff when you need her?
beerme,
Don't put words in my mouth. I never said Marge in MI lied.... I just said she got taken by an "unsavory character" from a Kinko's store in Texas.
There's a difference. Right Marge?
leben frei,
Ahhhh! But that's the point, my dear friend.... it's not the Chinese and Koreans who are buying the bonds. It's the US government buying the bonds from the US government FOR the US government to be used as an IOU to U and ME.
It's so weird, I'm not even sure why they're doing it. But I do know one thing... we're getting screwed. Let's look at this a little closer...
The government takes our money and puts it in a "trust fund" (hahahahaha... I wouldn't "trust" these guys any further than I could throw the Washington monument). Anyway, they pay current Social Security expenses to existing retirees out of the fund. But then they take the surplus and use it to buy Treasury bonds. The bonds (IOUs) go into the Social Security (SSI) fund. The money paid for the bonds goes to the Treasury and is then deposited into the General Fund... used to pay for all the general government operating expenses.
OK, with me so far? Then, the Treasury bonds in the SSI fund earn interest. That interest is not paid in cash but in... more IOU bonds! The actual money behind the IOU bonds goes to... (DUH) the Treasury and then the General Fund, to pay for more general government operating expenses.
Who pays the interest on the Treasury bonds? Why the US Treasury of course. And who redeems the bonds when they come due? Why the US Treasury of course. And where does the Treasury get this money to pay for the interest and the redemption on the bonds? Why the General Fund of course. It's the classic scenario of robbing Peter to pay Paul... or, taking the money out of the right pocket to put it into the left pocket.
And what happens when the Day of Reckoning comes? Well, let's see.... I think what they do is gradually raise the age at which you can collect full benefits. It used to be 65. For some of us it is now 67½. For our children, it will probably be 77 or 87.
Not only that, but the government has decided to supplement their income (from us), by taxing the SSI benefits of those who earn more than a certain amount of income.
Although it sounds fair on the surface, it is really a way of denying promised benefits to those who deserve it, because they worked extra hard and made some extra money so that they would not have to live ONLY on Social Security. (Another screwing of those with insight).
Bottom line... the government steals our money (in a legitimate way of course), then mismanages it for 50 years or so, and then tells us we don't deserve it because we are living longer now, or because we are making more than that poor slob over there... so they will do the "right" thing and take it away from us so they can spend it on more of their mismanagement schemes!
BS... NO?
Well I'm glad I checked in before leaving for the weekend.
Let's clear this all up.
An unnamed source....blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, fake but accurate, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, I did not receive an email from that man, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, uninformed 'bloggers' in their p.j.'s, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
O.K. then. Glad that's all cleared up!
lib mode/off
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