Free Republic

Yes, I agree with your sentiments. You are very smart, and you know how to invest and how to attend to your investments, so you ensure your money is working for you, not for anyone else. And I agree it is very irresponsible to leave one's investments to a so-called-expert salesman. But not everyone is as astute or as intelligent as you are, and so it seems to me that this must be considered when discussing reforms. Some people will invest badly because they are incapable of doing better. And so--how much will it cost to care for these people?

>>And a lot of people who get SSI with out ever working, by getting a liar(lawyer) to convince a judge that they can not work because they are drunks, druggies or just afraid of work.<<

Thanks to reform in the later 1990s, the druggers and drunks got kicked off the disability rolls, and they had to go back to work.

There are, however, people who get endogenous brain disorder or other illnesses or disability in life that make it impossible for them to work. I have worked with many of these people - they don't want to have disease or disability, they wish to work and prosper like everyone else. What will become of these people if social security is dismantled? Will it cost the taxpayer more or less to help them. Or should we just let them fend for themselves on the street?

>>Republicans ... touting social security reform by
funneling black tax dollars to the very people who
helped disenfranchise them. ...I don't think this makes any sense. What are you saying?
<<

You are right-the statement is utter nonsense,
and I wish to retract it. Besides that, I do not
know who among the Republican party tried to
suppress the black vote, not yet, but I do know
that no one has accused 'Wall Street.'

Thanks for challenging me on a bad, bad mistake.

>>Social Security rewards the longer lived at the expense of the shorter lived. There is not doubt that the worker who pays into the system for his entire working life and then kicks the bucket at 63 is hosed under the current system, with nothing to show for his hard-earned money invested over all those years. <<

You make a good point - the system is unfair to those who die young, yet do you see Wall Street as a solution to this problem? Would it be best to just get rid of the payroll tax and let people do as they wish with it?

>>And they trust the government?<<

Well, they haven't lost everything they had invested through the government. Government is supposed to be democratic. On the other hand, huge world monopoly corporations are not democratic--they are authoritarian by nature. I'd rather keep my money out of their coffers. Better to just do away with the SS tax, and let the people do with thewir money what they wish.

Why do you call social security 'welfare fraud"? What does the welfare entitlement program have to do with social security?

One more thing...I hope those who oppose Social Security can derive a better argument for reform than the black discrimination thing--it's too laughable, the notion of the Republicans, whose minions have been accused of oppressing, suppressing and tampering with the black vote in several key states, now touting social security reform by funneling black tax dollars to the very people who helped disenfranchise them.

>>I turned 65 and I wish they had allowed even 10% of the pyramid scheme called social security to be used for personal investing.<<

Have you done well with personal investments with the same financial institutions that will be receiving the payroll taxes to manage under Mr. Bush's reform program?

I know many people, age 70 and older, who are working full time, because their pension funds sustained huge losses during the last market ‘adjustment, leaving them with little for retirement. I assume that their social security contributions have become very important to their ability to feed themselves. And what about the elders who are infirm? They eat because of their investment in social security. What if there had been only pension funds available to them and no tax fir social security--would the infirm eat at all?

Most people I know don’t even trust the current US investment community or the stock markets—too much corruption has been endemic for too long, so they sit on a lot of cash right now. I know I would not want my payroll taxes going to Wall Street.

To suggest that this particular bin laden tape may not be what it is purported to be does not go beyond the pale of rational discussion. After all other bin Laden tapes have been declared fakes, or to be old tapes with new text added, and many people have good reason not to trust AL Jezeera or the US CIA.

Further since this latest tape may have harmed the President, I think it important to know if it's legit.
regards,

To suggest that this particular bin laden tape may not be what it is purported to be does not go beyond the pale of rational discussion. After all other bin Laden tapes have been declared fakes, or to be old tapes with new text added, and many people have good reason not to trust AL Jezeera or the US CIA.

Further since this latest tape may have harmed the President, I think it important to know if it's legit.
regards,

I hope Rashid Khalidi is wrong.

At one point in the later part of WW-II, GHW Bush was the >>youngest commisioned Navy carrier pilot. He was shot down, but managed to get out the aircraft and was picked up by a sub. He didn't have to volunteer for such duty, just as John F. Kennedy did not have to volunteer for PT boat duty. Both of them had plenty of family pull to get assigned to easier tasks. IIRC they both used that pull to get into the fight, not to stay out of it.<<

Some people have reported that GHWB bailed on his crewmates at the first sign of smoke, and by ejecting and saving himself he left his crewmates to plunge to a watery death.

Have you heard this? Is this true?

>> I don't think people will like this kind of attack, not just conservatives, I think it'll have a negative affect. Those people like my son who is 25 will not look kindly on this...those who don't know what Viet Nam was.<<

I think no one likes the negative campaigning coming from either side. But my concern for the President is that many Independents and even some Republicans believe that the people with whom our President has surrounded himself (Cheney, Rumsfeld, the Old PNAC men) are collectively insane, frighteningly so, and need to be removed from office. (far too many mistakes caused by arrogance and dismissing expert advice, not to mention Cheney's seemingly shady dealings with Iraq and Iran up until Iraq war II - despite the illegality, as well as bribery allegations against him in Nigeria; the ridiculous WMD fiasco which was not neccessary, since legitimate reasons existed to topple Saddam; Chalabi disaster and enormous cost to taxpayers and our National Security;Abu Ghraib handled poorly by Rumsfled and so on.

So my worry is that negative ads won't matter - almost anything the President could do does not matter, because people are fearful of the seeming incompetence and arrogance of his underlings. And I think this really stinks, because it's not the President to whom they are opposed.

>>BAGHDAD: Iraq is to restore the death penalty after the return of sovereignty later this month, in a measure which could affect ousted president Saddam Hussein, Justice Minister Malik Dohan al-Hassan said on Sunday.<<

What sovereignty? The Iraqi people want full control over all of their assets and natural resources;we have no right to impose our most extreme market fundamentalism upon them, and they want real elections now. They also wish us to leave their country. Until George Bush is willing to give these things back to the Iraqi people, and leave as they have requested, the Iraqi peple will have no sovereignty.

>>The likes of Willie are the reason for a mindset of many that we are NOT as well off as we are.>>

My experience is that the mindset arises from the reality of people's lives.

I have many business clients who own small- and medium-sized businesses (3-10 million dollar volume;60-800 employees). They claim their business outlook is grim (And they should know-all have been operating for 50 plus years), and that it is the same with colleagues around the country. They say they have never witnessed such a bleak business outlook. One problem is that when manufacturing moves overseas, lots of industrial suppliers and industrial construction firms are left without customers. And many face the dilemma of whether to sell out America and their employees of 50 years, and offshore like everyone else, or stick it out and see.

I also know many executives who were once pulling six-figured salaries, who are now scrounging around finding some new way to make a living. But this has been happening for years, before the President took office.

Frankly, I have always been opposed to the neoliberal economic ideology imposed on the U.S as economic restructuring by the past three presidential administrations and much of congress. To my mind, neoliberal economic doctrine is mere scientism, not science. However, one can not blame the current economic circumstances solely on the President. And Kerry will pursue the same policies. We're stuck with neoliberalism until the fossil-fuel runs dry.

>>The disconnect between positive economic reports and the public's perception of the economy worsening is really soething.<<

Perhaps the indicators used to measure the health of an economy have nothing to do with reality of people's economic lives.

>>Has anyone tried a side by side comparison of Berg and the hitch hiker guy? Berg has been everywhere and done everything. A real live Forrest Gump.<<

Haha! A great analogy.

>>We do know that, like thousands of Muslim youths, he rallied to the US-backed anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan and gained a reputation as a fighter.<<

Oh, my, another CIA asset. I thought he had lost a leg, or was dead.

>>Diebold's e-voting system was first stung by criticism last year when an unidentified hacker managed to obtain the company's software blueprints, known as source code, along with e-mails and other documents. That gave computer scientists a chance to evaluate the code and question its integrity.<<

That's interesting. I heard that Diebold mistakenly left all that stuff exposed to the world on the Web(which is not very responsible, since voter lists were present).

Was it a hack?

All these companies need to do is provide a paper ballot with their machines, and the issue would be done with. I fail to undertstand why they balk at such a simple solution, when it would end this nonsense immediately.

Cheating is too easy otherwise.