Government Deception

An article that appeared in the February 11, 2009 edition of The Nation, entitled “Looting Social Security” sheds light on how deceptive our government can be when trying to hide from the public’s eye their true intentions. The so called governing elites in Washington and Wall Street are trying to persuade President Obama to recover the bail out costs by looting Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare. These propagandists intend to use America’s social security taxes illegally for their own purposes, but they don’t want the American People to know about it-so they are using what the author calls “bait-and-switch fraud.” In other words, millions of dollars accumulated since FICA was substantially raised under the Reagan administration in 1983 will be misappropriated, behind closed doors, so the public cannot discern the full extent of what is happening, or even which politicians they should hold accountable. Never mind that trust will be broken with the millions of working Americans who thought that by contributing a portion of each paycheck, they were accumulating a nest egg that would provide a measure of economic security in their retirement years.
As pathetic as this prospect seems, it is actually business as usual for the federal government. Every year the Treasury borrows surplus money from Social Security & spends it according to the whims of the president or Congress-even allowing for tax cuts for favored special interests. The formula is simple- just juggle a few numbers & “Presto!”…. the federal deficit appears 200 billion dollars less. The problem is that Uncle Sam is legally obligated to pay back this money, with interest, whenever Social Security needs it to pay benefits. With baby boomers retiring in droves, the time is fast approaching that trillions owed must be paid back or the United States government risks losing all credibility- and millions of retirees, as a consequence, will have to be paid through borrowed money.
I agree wholeheartedly with the author of this article, but I have an idea of my own. Why not require honesty on the part of the federal government in all fiscal matters? The American people are not stupid; we can see through the yearly charade put on by the Treasury. Continued attempts to mislead us only make a mockery of our democratic system, & imply that the checks & balances established by our founding fathers are inadequate. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090302/greider?rel=hp_currently