This page was last updated on April 8, 2011.
Leave Social Security alone; Mike Lavery; Beaver County Times; April 7, 2011.
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“I keep hearing tbat [sic] we have to do something about Social Security to balance the budget.
“My pay stub has a separate tax for federal withholding (Social Security and Medicare). Maybe if the federal government didn’t steal the money, Social Security wouldn’t be going broke.”
[RWC] It’s true the feds made thing worse when spent the tax revenue long ago on other stuff, but SS and Medicare are Ponzi schemes and were doomed to failure from the beginning. As designed, SS requires an ever-growing SS taxpaying population and a high multiple of current SS taxpayers relative to current SS beneficiaries, and/or ever-increasing SS tax rates, and/or ever-decreasing benefits. Any such system has failure built in. Medicare works the same way.
“If they want to balance the budget, maybe they should try this:
“- Get out of Iraq and Afghanistan.”
[RWC] I’m not sure Mr. Lavery understands how big the deficit is. In President Obama’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2012, there’s “only” $118 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan. That’s only about 8% of a deficit of about $1,480 billion.
“- Shut down the Federal Reserve. It charges us taxpayers interest to print money, our money, some of which are foreign banks.
“- Shut down the Department of Homeland Security. Does anyone really know how much it spends or does?”
[RWC] According to President Obama’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2012, the DHS spent $44.5 billion in 2010. While DHS probably contains some things Mr. Lavery doesn’t like, it also includes the Coast Guard, Secret Service, and Customs & Border Enforcement.
“Do we really need all of these senators and representatives? How much does the fake war on drugs cost?”
[RWC] Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution (as well as the 17th Amendment) states, “The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State.”
Article I, Section 2 states, “The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative.” The Other than no more than one per 30,000, Constitution does not set an upper limit on the number of representative. The current number of 435 was set by the Apportionment Act of 1911.
According to the Sunlight Foundation, Congress spent about $1.36 billion on itself in 2010, including “about $1 billion … for salaries and benefits.” That’s just under 0.1% of the deficit.
“‘When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty.’ Thomas Jefferson wrote that.”
[RWC] It appears Mr. Jefferson didn’t say/write this quote.
© 2004-2011 Robert W. Cox, all rights reserved.