Dan Cogley – 2/1/13

This page was last updated on February 2, 2013.

What do they want?; Dan Cogley; Beaver County Times; February 1, 2013.

Previous Cogley letters I critiqued were “Keep guns out of schools,” “Pennsylvania not proud,” “Poor people do create jobs,” “Government should not invade private lives,” “Why vote Republican,” “We need more Democrats,” “Try trickle-up effect,” “Elderly will be hit under GOP policies,” “Let politicians try unemployment,” and “Cuban missile déjà vu.” My personal favorite was “Why vote Republican.” Cogley letters I didn’t critique include “Question in need of an answer” (4/7/11) and “Suggested cuts they won’t make” (3/14/11).

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“First, they take away the pensions, now they want Social Security and Medicare.”

[RWC] Who took away whose pensions?

“Think of it like this, one day you will be retired, and if you don’t have a million to a million and a half in the bank, you will starve to death. These are the hard facts, if you are without Social Security or Medicare and you get sick, it is lights out. You will have nothing!”

[RWC] If you are familiar with Mr. Cogley’s letter-writing body-of-work, you know correct “hard facts” are not his forte. This letter is no different.

“They will tell you we can’t afford this. I say we can’t afford not to. I believe if it were not for the people on Social Security when little Bush took us into the abyss, we would have gone into a depression. Regardless what some Republicans might tell you, the middle class is the engine of the economy. Think of buying power; there are about 30 million millionaires in the nation. That leaves about 270 million who are not.”

[RWC] You’ll note Mr. Cogley provided no supporting evidence to support his belief “if it were not for the people on Social Security … we would have gone into a depression.” Mr. Cogley’s comment indicates he doesn’t appear to know from where the funds to pay the SS benefits came. Part of the benefits was paid by current SS taxpayers. That means all that happened was dollars that could have been spent by the people who earned them were instead spent by SS beneficiaries. The remainder of the funds used to pay SS beneficiaries came from new debt the feds had to issue. That’s because SS went into deficit (benefits paid exceed SS taxes collected) in 2010 and will remain in deficit. Therefore, SS must redeem IOUs to pay for benefits. When the SS Administration redeems one of their IOUs to pay for benefits, the feds must issue debt or print dollars. There is no pot of gold or stack of dollar bills just waiting to honor the IOUs.

As for his comment about former-President George W. Bush, little Cogley appears not to know – or chooses to ignore – what got us into the mess.

I don’t have a clue what Mr. Cogley meant with his comment about Republicans and the “middle class.” By the way, who is it that more or less wants an open southern border and who gets hurt when the labor market is flooded with undereducated immigrants who can’t speak English, depressing wages? As a labor-union-management supporter, has Mr. Cogley ever asked why labor union management supports immigration policy detrimental to legal American employees? Hint: It’s about politics and declining labor union membership.

The primary business of today’s labor unions is advocacy for leftist politicians and lobbying for leftist policies/programs. According to their Department of Labor LM-2 forms, USW management (Leo Gerard, a foreign national, is International President) spent over $6 million in 2010 on “Political Activities and Lobbying” and AFL-CIO management spent over $29.6 million in 2010 on “Political Activities and Lobbying.” Representing employees is simply a fund-raising chore labor union management must endure to provide funds for its lobbying and political activities. Heck, AFL-CIO CEO Richard Trumka conceded as much when he said, “I got into the labor movement not because I wanted to negotiate wages. I got into the labor movement because I saw it as a vehicle to do massive social change to improve the lots of people.”

Does Mr. Cogley really think about one in 10 Americans (including children) – or about one in seven of those older than 21 – is a millionaire? According to Time, Mr. Cogley’s claim of “about 30 million millionaires in the nation” is closer to 5.1 million as of the end of 2011.