Bush plans post-election push on Social Security

[TexasLawyer]

Bush plans post-election push on Social Security

Wed Nov 1, 2006 5:24pm ET

WASHINGTON, Nov 1 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush, whose effort last year to overhaul Social Security proved highly unpopular, said he plans a renewed push to rein in the costs of entitlement programs after the elections.

Bush has named Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to lead discussions with both Democratic and Republican lawmakers about ways to contend with the future costs of the Social Security retirement program and the Medicare health program.

Government spending on such programs is expected to soar in coming years as the huge baby boom generation begins to retire.

"I'm willing to listen to anything, but I recognize that it's going to take a bipartisan approach," Bush told Reuters and other wire services in an interview. "And I think it's going to be very important for people to let -- if they are genuinely interested in going forward -- is to not put any preconditions on it," he said.

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http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2006-11-01T222416Z_01_N01424815_RTRIDST_0_BUSH-SOCIALSECURITY.XML

[lovuian]

1. bush keep talking Social security pretty please it drops your

polls everytime and right before the elections too Goodie Goodie

[Ignacio Upton]

2. And yet the MSM won't cover it until it is too late

And even then they will frame it in a way that helps Bush get such a plan through Congress, complete with repeating the Frank Luntz term "personal accounts" and everything!

[cui bono]

10. If he couldn't get it through before, what makes you think he'll do it when the Dems

take over the house?

[William Bloode]

16. Ah you forget the new tactics!

Signing statements, and the whole "unitary executive" bullshit. If Pukes retain control call it gone!

[tabasco]

3. The robber barons drool over Granny's pension.

I'm not surprised.

[grytpype]

4. That's it Junior, keep talking about Social Security and Iraq.

That'll remind everyone that you totally f*cked up Iraq and were stopped from f*cking up Social Security by the Dems.

[bananas]

5. k&r nt

[AzDar]

6. K&R...('entitlement programs', my arse!)

[bluestateguy]

7. Oh that ought to be good for a few laughs

I shouldn't do this bu some advice for this president: in the last two years of a two term presidency, just stick to ceremonial duties like throwing the baseball out on Opening Day and lighting the National Christmas Tree.

[Joe for Clark]

8. Oh, he is going to have a tough time staying away from

impeachment after tuesday.

He is going to call the shots? - - hahahaha

Joe

[cui bono]

9. Stubborn little bugger isn't he? Yet another "stay the course" from this loser.

[ozymandius]

11. Yet nothing is planned to reign in boondoggle defense spending.

Maybe if we just throw money at the Pentagon, our troubles will go away.

BTW, where is that $2 trillion that somehow got misplaced?

[superconnected]

12. nothing since he got in has taken a "bi-partisan approach"

they have both houses of congress.

does he plan for the repugs to lose?

[ProgressiveEconomist]

13. By this time next year, Dubya will have squandered a TRILLION

Social Security dollars in just 7 years! He's already spent $856 billion.

Bill Clinton REVERSED Republican theft of FICA trillions begun under Reagan, but Dubya IMMEDIATELY restarted it.

Social Security cash flow now is PEAKING, just before the oldest Baby Boomers start retiring at age 62 in 2008. The positive SS cash flow is projected to decline from here on and turn negative a decade or so from now. Dubya thus is squandering the last and largest amounts of positive Social Security cash flow, while claiming to be trying to "save" Social Security. Retirements promised to Boomers were 100 percent paid-for with payroll tax increases since 1983, but Dubya's spending spree on boondoggles and giveaways to the wealthiest is going to make it extremely difficult for future Congresses to make good on Social Security promises.

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DETAILS

The following table comes from the Congressional Budget Office and the Office of the Social Security Actuary. The "Total Deficit or Surplus" is the algebraic sum of the "On-Budget Deficit or Surplus" (column 3) and the "Social Security Cash Flow" (column 4)

The "Social Security Cash Flow" (column 4) has been positive since 1983, when recommendations of the Reagan/Greenspan Social Security "Reform" Commission were implemented. These "reforms" raised FICA payroll taxes on the poor and middle classes by about a quarter to fund a 60 percent cut in marginal tax rates for the wealthiest.

Whenever the "On-Budget Deficit or Surplus" (column 3) is positive (as it was in fiscal 1999 and 2000, under Bill Clinton), no Social Security money is being spent to offset the Federal Budget. Whenever it is negative and greater in absolute value than the "Social Security Cash Flow" (as it was every year from 1983 to 1997 and every year since 2002), the entire positive cash flow from Social Security is being spent to subsidize Budget spending.

In other years (2001), only part of positive Social Security Cash Flow is being used to subsidize Federal Budget Spending. For example, from October 1 2000 to September 30 2001, only $32.4B of $163.0B in Social Security cash was wasted, because Bush was not in power for the whole fiscal year, and because it took some months to push through his giveaways to the wealthiest.

The total Social Security Cash flow spent to offset Federal Budget deficits during fiscal 2001-2006 thus is $ 856.2 BILLION, including column 4 for 2002-2006, and column 3 for 2001.

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From http://www.cbo.gov/budget/historical.pdf :

"Revenues, Outlays, Deficits, Surpluses, and Debt Held by the Public (Billions of dollars)

Fiscal Year, Total Deficit or Surplus, On-Budget Deficit or Surplus, Social Security Cash flow

Clinton
1993 .. -255.1 .. -300.4 ... 46.8
1994 .. -203.2 .. -258.8 ... 56.8
1995 .. -164.0 .. -226.4 ... 60.4
1996 .. -107.4 .. -174.0 ... 66.4
1997 .... -21.9 .. -103.2 ... 81.3
1998 ..... 69.3 .... -29.9 ... 99.4
1999 ... 125.6 ....... 1.9 .. 124.7
2000 ... 236.2 ..... 86.4 .. 151.8

GW Bush
2001 ... 128.2 .... -32.4 .. 163.0
2002 .. -157.8 .. -317.4 .. 159.0
2003 .. -377.6 .. -538.4 .. 155.6
2004 .. -412.7 .. -568.0 .. 151.1
2005 .. -318.3 .. -493.6 .. 173.5
2006 .. -247.7 .. -432.9 .. 185.2 (per http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/ProgData/fyOps.html )

[papau]

26. Can anyone name a year that Bush didn't increase the Federal Debt by over $500B?

:-(

[liberal N proud]

14. It is just eating him up, all the money his cronies can't get their

grubby hands on.

[Lefty48197]

15. The voters will rein in Congress and thereby fix the budget mess

Bush you can sit on the sidelines and watch us perform for the next two years. Your services are no longer needed.

[European Socialist]

17. Please let it be so--I want to see Bush in single digits.

[Bozita]

18. Wasn't Hitler planning major offensives while hiding in his bunker ...

... in early April, 1945?

[kurth]

19. Please forward this to every baby boomer and senior citizen you know

between now and Tuesday.

[CountAllVotes]

20. send it to EVERYONE you know

and yes, EVEN YOU could end up needing Social Security. That is what it is all about. What happens if you marry and a spouse dies and you have children? There are something known as "Surviors Benefits" and they come from the Social Security Administration.

What if you become disabled and can no longer work? Even you might need to draw on that Social Security that you paid into.

It is highly offensive to think that chimpface might try to steal the money that every person in this country has most likely contributed to, and that is Social Security. Some have been paying into this for over almost 50 years.

My point is that every American citizen should be highly concerned about this as this is money that belongs to us, We The People.

chimpface is so desperate now, he has to give in one more try, to steal what belongs to us, We the People of the United States of America. That is how the money got there to begin with, it came from us and it belongs to us.

:kick:

[kurth]

21. Amen

Many people may not remember that the disabled would have been hurt big time if the moron's privatization scheme had been enacted into law last year.

[Hekate]

22. His work will not be done until we are all destitute

I hope he rots in Hell, since he says he believes in it.

Hekate

[Vinca]

23. We have GOT to win next Tuesday to keep this maniac in check. nt

[Frank Cannon]

24. Why wait, Georgie? Let's hear what you got to say now.

Please, please, talk about it as much as you'd like. If it's a good idea after the election, it should be a good idea now, shouldn't it?

[fasttense]

25. Another Social Security "fix" by another repuke is sure to destroy

it. The last time a republicon tried to "fix" Social Security they doubled our Social Security Tax. The forgetful Raygun double our Social Security taxes so the baby boomers were the first generation to not only pay for their parent's retirement, they paid for their own retirement as well. So where is all that money?