Jerry Miskulin – 9/11/06

This page was last updated on September 11, 2006.

Bush is the problem; Jerry Miskulin; Beaver County Times; September 11, 2006.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“President Bush is making a lot of waves for his rhetoric about Social Security and Medicare. I don’t deny there’s a problem, but for the person who created the problem, to try and solve it is foolish.”

[RWC] FDR created this problem in 1935, but since FDR died in 1945, I assume Mr. Miskulin is referring to President Bush.

Let me get this straight. Before President Bush took office in 2001, Socialist Security and Medicare had no fiscal problems? If that’s true, why was the Socialist Security tax rate increased 20 times since 1950? At 12.4%, it’s now 6.2 times its original rate. Why does the max taxed earnings cap increase every year by law? At $94,000, the cap is $68,300 over 1980’s limit of $25,900. That’s a 264% increase in 26 years. Why were Democrats proposing ways to fix Socialist Security in the late 1990s?

Come on, Mr. Miskulin, get serious. Socialist Security and Medicare are Ponzi schemes and you know it. While President Bush and the Republican majority Congress haven’t fixed the problem (No thanks to folks who think as Mr. Miskulin.), President Bush didn’t “create the problem” unless you believe he is FDR reincarnated.

“Let me give you an example about life and show you how it relates to Social Security and Medicare.

“If you are thinking about financing a new house, you don’t go out and buy a $100,000 mink coat. You save your money, knowing money will be tight in the future.”

[RWC] Does Mr. Miskulin think it was by chance that FDR and the Democrat Congress designed Socialist Security taxes to go into the general tax fund instead of into individual personal accounts, or at least into trust funds untouchable for other uses?

“You use your intelligence, not your emotions, to guide you through difficult money issues.

“The government knows the future is going to be fiscally tough, but what do they keep doing? They spend in unprecedented terms.”

[RWC] This is absolutely true, and has been since at least 1902. With the exception of the one or two years immediately after World Wars I & II and the Korean War, federal government spending has increased every year.

“They’re spending your Social Security and Medicare money, and then they say there’s a problem. The problem is them. We elected them, so the problem is really us.”

[RWC] You noticed Mr. Miskulin didn’t provide any spending cut recommendations.

“President Bush looked deep into our eyes, like Putin, and saw nothing there. Pretty soon also the kitchen will be bare.”

[RWC] Huh?