Gino Piroli – 3/7/10

This page was last updated on March 9, 2010.

Charlie Wilson’s war had ties to Aliquippa; Gino Piroli; Beaver County Times; March 7, 2010.

The critique covers only the portion of the column that refers to “personal attacks” Mr. Piroli allegedly received about his “To me, mural is a good sign” column of February 21^st. As published on the Times website, the column was a single run-on paragraph. The breaks below are my own to make the critique easier to follow.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject column.

“I wrote about President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Projects Administration program a few weeks ago and received a number of responses that I appreciate for their interest. All weren’t positive, but even those that differed with my positions dealt with the issues. However, one of the expected personal attacks does in a way reflect on so many of those in my age group. It accused me of living on the public dole.”

[RWC] As I’ve noted before, Mr. Piroli has been whining about “personal attacks” since at least 2004. Here’s what I wrote in a critique of a Piroli column from January 2005: “His ‘columns’ include public personal attacks, yet Mr. Piroli appears to be upset when people do the same to him in private e-mail notes. As a note, review Mr. Piroli’s columns and you’ll routinely find complaints about personal attack e-mail.

“I find it predictable for someone who relies on personal attacks to be offended when on the receiving end. Check Mr. Piroli’s columns over the past couple of years and you will find his columns have referred to President Bush and his administration as court appointed, dishonorable, dumb, incompetent, “geniuses” in a derisive context, liars, obsessive, and so on. Not once did the columns cite credible and verifiable evidence to support the name-calling.”

“I’m not sure how working in the steel mill and the post office for a combined 45 years, paying Social Security and Medicare taxes, and contributing to a pension plan is living on the public dole.”

[RWC] While Mr. Piroli doesn’t appear to be “living on the public dole” completely, he is at least partially “living on the public dole” just as everyone who accepts Medicare and Socialist Security benefits. How can that be since Mr. Piroli allegedly paid “Social Security and Medicare taxes” “for a combined 45 years?” (I know it’s nitpicking but, assuming Mr. Piroli retired at age 65, he paid Medicare taxes for “only” about 25 years. That’s because Medicare was enacted in 1965.)

Now I’ll answer the above question. Medicare and Socialist Security are “pay as you go” income redistribution programs. That is, today’s Medicare and SS taxes pay for the benefits of today’s Medicare and SS benefit recipients. The Medicare and SS taxes he paid were not put into an account to pay for Mr. Piroli’s retirement benefits. The Medicare and SS taxes Mr. Piroli paid were used to pay for people collecting benefits while he was employed. Today’s Medicare and SS taxpayers are paying for Mr. Piroli’s benefits, not Mr. Piroli. This is the very definition of a Ponzi scheme and why both of these programs are in financial trouble. According to the Medicare Trustees in their report to Congress in 2009, Medicare is now in deficit (outlays exceed Medicare tax revenue) and will be bankrupt in 2017. Regarding Socialist Security, SS will go into deficit in 2016, the Disability Insurance portion of SS will be bankrupt in 2020, and the overall SS “trust fund” (the equivalent of a stack of federal government “IOUs” for revenue already spent by the feds for other programs) will be exhausted by 2037.

These are income redistribution programs because a person’s SS benefits are only loosely dependent on how much he paid in taxes and Medicare benefits are the same for everyone regardless of how much an individual paid in Medicare taxes.

I cover this in more detail in my critique of a Piroli column of March 21, 2005.

“In retirement, I gladly admit, like millions of Americans, to receiving the benefits of Social Security and Medicare, which have made our senior years (last week I had my 84th birthday) more livable. My only concern is that these government programs won’t be available to everyone in the years to come. The letter writer left out my earliest handout from the government. In 1944, at age 18, I went on the payroll beginning at $21 a month for two years. They not only paid me; they provided me room and board and clothing. They also sent me on a six-month cruise through the Pacific Ocean islands, ending in Okinawa and Tokyo Bay on Sept. 2, 1945. The historic ceremony that day made me aware that our government involvement would soon end for me and some 16 million other Americans. Unfortunately, more than 400,000 of that group didn’t get the opportunity to return home. For me, it meant going back to my 65.5-cents-an-hour job as a pipe fitter helper at the steel mill. To a number of friends, the column brought back fond memories of the WPA. One is in his 90s and at that time was the sole supporter of his family.”

[RWC] As I wrote in my critique of the 2/21/10 column, Mr. Piroli and “a number of friends” may have “fond memories of the WPA,” but I bet he doesn’t (or chooses not to) remember what Henry Morgenthau, FDR’s Treasury Secretary during the Great Depression, said about FDR’s “government initiatives.” Testifying before the House Ways and Means Committee in May 1939, Sec. Morgenthau said, “We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong … somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises … I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started … And an enormous debt to boot.” Mr. Piroli and Sec. Morganthau appear to disagree about “the success of the programs that saw our citizens regain their pride and dignity.”