President’s budget threatens the future of Social Security

President’s budget threatens the future of Social Security
By Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND)
The Forum - 03/23/2004

http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=53219

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan fired a warning shot recently when he told Congress that America has over-committed its fiscal resources and should consider cuts to Social Security benefits.

But the problem does not lay with our commitment to the elderly. Social Security is a promise that should be kept. The problem lays in the president’s commitment to cutting taxes for the wealthy while spending Social Security trust funds drawn from the paychecks of working Americans. This is an enormous wealth transfer from the many to the few.

Since 2001, the White House has systematically raided the Social Security trust fund surpluses of every dime. Those trust fund balances are not really surpluses, because soon the money will be needed to fund the retirement of the Baby Boom generation. Unfortunately, the president has borrowed all the money and has no plan to pay it back. This policy is pushing our nation into an ocean of red ink so deep that it threatens to swallow a program that is critical to our nation’s elderly.

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Budgets are about choices. Instead of preparing for the retirement of the Baby Boom generation -- the largest generation in our history -- this president chooses to take the entire $2.5 trillion Social Security surplus projected for the next decade. He does that at the same time he seeks $2.4 trillion in income tax cuts, the vast majority of which would help the wealthy.

I believe that is the wrong choice.

It is wrong for the White House to use payroll taxes collected from working men and women to patch budget holes caused by slashing taxes for the wealthy. It is wrong for the White House to covers its losses with a trust fund intended as a safety net for our elderly. And it is wrong when the President’s plan leads Greenspan to call for cuts in Social Security.

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Conrad is ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee. He also serves on the Agriculture, Finance and Indian Affairs committees in the U.S. Senate.


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:-)

Social Security?

He has been on top of the junta/repuke budget fraud from the very beginning. He and Corzine and several others have been waging a lonely fight.

Nobody can refute Conrad on this issue. He knows the facts cold.

I like Dorgan (D-ND) a lot too! He likes to call people out on their bullshit. But I am biased... I voted for them both when I lived in ND.