Sunday Morning Talk Show Thread 21 October 2012

Various driveby media television networks ^ | 21 October 2012 | Various Self-Serving Politicians and Big Media Screaming Faces

[Gritty]

Benghazi is is right on the coast

Quite right. It is readily accessible from the sea and centrally located.

Because of the problems in the region, it is likely there were some US ships in the area off Benghazi and all would have had some capability to react and especially if it were foreseen there might be trouble (anniversary of 9/11, lots of alarming intel... what could possibly go wrong?...).

That would have been approximately equidistant from Tripoli, Tunis and Egypt - areas where there was known trouble at the time. NAS Sigonella, of course would have been the closest major land base to Libya but there are others in the Med which could have been used for staging as well. Plus we could have an increased Marine presence in Tripoli.

Frankly, the Quick Reaction Teams taken out of Libya and testified to at the Congressional hearing would have been ideal protection with further depth planned at sea and from other areas including back up Marines from Tripoli.

Somebody screwed up, big time. It's either that or we purposely led with our chin for some reason. Frankly, it is looking more and more like it was the latter.

Again, the questions are "who" and "why"? I doubt we'll see the answers before the election.

[gov_bean_ counter]

My guess would be that SS was first enacted with the belief than more people would never be collecting than do.

[kabar]

You can disagree all you want but the facts are facts. SS is a pay as you go system. Today's workers pay for the retirement benefits of today's retirees. We pay out more in benefits than we collect in revenue.

Source: CBO "Combined OASDI Trust Funds; January 2011 Baseline" 26 Jan 2011. Note: See "Primary Surplus" line (which is negative, indicating a deficit)

Matters are even worse than this chart shows. In December, Congress passed a Social Security tax reduction. Workers are temporarily paying 2 percentage points less, from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent, in Social Security payroll taxes this calendar year. Since the government is making up the shortfall out of general revenues, CBO’s deficit projections for the trust funds do not include that. But CBO’s figures predict that the "payroll tax holiday" will cost the government’s general fund $85 billion in this fiscal year and $29 billion in fiscal year 2012 (which starts Oct.1, 2011.) Since every dollar of that will have to be borrowed, the combined effect of the " tax holiday" and the annual deficits will amount to a $130 billion addition to the federal deficit in the current fiscal year, and $59 billion in fiscal 2012.

Social Security has passed a tipping point. For years it generated more revenue than it consumed, holding down the overall federal deficit and allowing Congress to spend more freely for other things. But those days are gone. Rather than lessening the federal deficit, Social Security has at last — as long predicted — become a drag on the government’s overall finances.

Why Social Security is a Ponzi Scheme

Social Security is broke because it was squandered, not because there aren't enough taxes to cover it

Nonsense. The money has not been squandered. You don't seem to understand how the system works. During the days when SS was in "surplus," i.e., revenue exceeded benefits paid out, the "surplus" was deposited into the General Fund and Treasury issued interest bearing non-market T-bills in the amount of the "surplus" and deposited them into the SS Trust Fund, which now contains $2.6 trillion. Now that SS is running in the red, the General Fund is redeeming them to make up the shortfall.

The SSTF is part of our $16 trillion national debt and is held as "Intragovernmental Holdings" along with other trust funds like Medicare Part A and federal employees pensions. Essentially the T-bills are like the same ones held in the public debt but they can only be redeemed by the USG. So the money has not been squandered.

The problem is that SSTF represents an unfunded liability and when the T-bills are redeemed by the general fund, 42 cents of every dollar is borrowed. It is adding to our publicly-held debt.

SS is going broke because there are fewer workers to support it. SS taxes have been increased over 40 times since its inception and the salary cap on wages subject to the payroll tax has been raised almost annually. For example, in 2000 the cap was $76,200. Today it is 110,100 and will go to $113,700 in 2013.

During the period 1937-49, the tax rate was 1% each for the employee and the employer or 2%. Today it is 6.2% each or 12.4%. Social Security Tax Rates

SS is an insurance scheme, not a pension plan. And benefits are not tied to revenue or computed on the total amount of contributions you put into the system.

[kabar]

The life span was much lower so the number collecting would be far less. And there were far more workers per retiree than today.

[FamiliarFace]

I am of the belief that Obummer doesn’t truly think that terrorism is really anything he should have to worry about, hence, no need to have anyone on high alert, even for the 9/11 anniversary. It is simply not one of his priorities. There was no screw up other than total incompetence and indifference, and that is as Obummer wants it to be.

If he were ever serious about terrorism, it would have been a priority, marked by attendance at his daily briefings, but he avoided those. He couldn’t be bothered. His feigned interest in this now is solely for reelection purposes. It is nothing more than self-preservation for a complete narcissistic buffoon.

[CDB]

AB,

Today’s Sunday Talk Show Thread was outstanding, and aptly showed why the Sunday Talk Show Thread is the best thread on FR.

[acapesket]

Awesome thread! I miss Eleanor... how is she doing?

[Eva]

From the testimony before Congress by members of the State Dept:
Some officials say the U.S. could have sent military forces to Benghazi from U.S. Naval Air Station Sigonella, which is some 450 miles away in Sicily, or mobilized a Marine team in Rota, Spain. Some officials said the U.S. could also have sent aircraft to the scene in a “show of force” to scare off the attackers. State Department officials dismissed the suggestions as unrealistic. “They would not have gotten there in two hours, four hours or six hours. They don’t have troops sitting in a room next to an airplane with a pilot just sitting in the next room drinking coffee,” one senior State Department official said.”

The problem is that other people say that there is a rapid response team stationed in Southern Italy just for such emergencies.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

Snort...huh? I must have dozed off. Larri?

Alright, who turned off the lights?...smart@$$.

Hey, where’d everybody go....Larri? Larri?

[rodguy911]

Thanks, Benghazi does not look all the inaccessible.

For everythig to have happened the way it did its either gross incompetence or planned.Hard to tell which.

If it was planned had to be planned at the highest levels of govt. and took months to implement.

[rodguy911]

Ping her,sometimes she lurks.

[Morgan in Denver]

Thanks for the information. I’m glad someone here is doing it.