Posted on 02/28/2005 2:33:00 PM PST by anymouse
It is high time someone told the truth about AARP: "The Emperor has no clothes." On Social Security they are completely wrong in their attacks against letting workers own their own accounts.
AARP and other critics of President Bush’s Social Security plan for Personal Retirement Accounts argue that individually owned Social Security accounts cannot provide improved retirement benefits and will destroy what they claim is the "safety net." But a retirement program in Texas shows how to improve upon Social Security with Personal Retirement Accounts, and accomplish this while controlling financial risks.
A bit of history: Until the 1983 Social Security "reform," (which raised taxes and cut benefits), local governments could opt out of the Social Security system if they provided an alternative retirement plan. In 1981, three Texas counties—Galveston, Brazoria and Matagorda—launched a retirement program that offers a much better deal than Social Security, without introducing any significant financial risks to employees.
The Texas model is a resounding success. Retired Galveston County Judge Ray Holbrook, as his county’s chief elected officer, oversaw the "Personal Retirement Plan" from its inception until his 1995 retirement. The plan had three principles: (1) benefits had to be better than or the same as Social Security; (2) no tax increases; and (3) no risk to workers.
Here’s how this Personal Retirement Plan works: workers’ payroll taxes are deposited in personal retirement accounts that are then used to purchase commercial banking and life insurance products already available in the marketplace, such as certificates of deposit and annuities, as well as conservative government and commercial bonds. "It was this approach that sold my colleagues, and me," Holbrook said, "because it essentially eliminated risk from the program."
"Our plan provides better retirement, survivorship and disability benefits than Social Security," said Holbrook, a National Grassroots Leader for USA Next. "Our plan provides a better rate of return—between 7% and 8% per year—compared to less than 2% under the current Social Security system. And our plan uses no risky investments, only commercial banking products, annuities and bonds that provide guaranteed fixed interest rates and no risk." This destroys AARP’s claims.
Because Personal Retirement Accounts are individually owned, accumulated savings can be passed on to heirs. In this way, a worker can provide a tangible financial legacy for the family. AARP’s bitter, determined resistance to helping families prosper financially is mystifying. The only logical explanation is they are completely dedicated to continued dependence on the government.
The contrast of the Texas Model with Social Security is not "theory." When one county commissioner died, the commissioner’s widow received a $255 death benefit from Social Security. That’s all. The Alternate Plan, however, paid her a lump-sump survivorship benefit of $150,000, plus she is entitled to a reserve account of $125,000, available to her at any time. Her benefits are more than 1000 times better than what Social Security paid after a lifetime of working.
The existing Social Security system provides paltry returns on contributions. For millions it will be zero or less. The Personal Account provides a rate of return on retirement account contributions four to five times better than those offered by Social Security, without significant added risk.
The Social Security system cannot be left "as is." It requires enormous tax increases, significant cuts in benefits or both. That’s a formula for intergenerational political conflict. Younger people will resent huge new taxes and retirees will blame younger workers’ resistance to taxes for any benefit cuts. The Personal Retirement Plan in Texas proves AARP is dead wrong again and that they threaten Americans’ finances.
Go to www.usanext.org and click on "Don’t Mess with Texas" to see how you can beat AARP.
Galveston ping.
It is high time someone told the truth about AARP: "The Emperor has no clothes." On Social Security they are completely wrong in their attacks against letting workers own their own accounts.AARP and other critics of President Bush’s Social Security plan for Personal Retirement Accounts argue that individually owned Social Security accounts cannot provide improved retirement benefits and will destroy what they claim is the "safety net." .....
The Big Lie is that Social Security is some kind of retirement savings plan.
It is NOT.
Social Security is a socialist income redistribution scheme, nothing else.
Those who are working are taxed to provide a "safety net" for those who are less fortunate.
Originally, this meant retirees and surviving dependents.
Congress has, of course, complicated it far beyond this over the last 65 years.
But one fact remains: it is NOT a "savings plan", it is an income redistribution scheme.
A major facet of The Big Lie is that "we have to do something so that Social Security remains solvent in the future.
Poppycock!
In today's age of modern computerization, the computation for operating an income redistribution scheme that remains perpetually solvent is quite simple:
The only change necessary to the current system is that monthly payments to eligible recipients would be a variable amount, not fixed.
THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO NEED FOR A MULTI-TRILLION DOLLAR "TRUST" FUND!!!
Congress should NEVER have been permitted to confiscate so much money from the American People in the name of The Big Lie. This fund is nothing but a slush fund that Congress raids to pay for other government expenditures. If private sector employers did the same thing with their companies' pension funds, they'd be placed in prison. The "privatization" plan proposed by Bush is merely an attempt by Wall Street brokerage firms and financial institutions to get in on the scam: grab a portion of a constant revenue stream (guaranteed by taxation) from which they can skim their commissions.
The American People need to wake up and put these liars and thieves in prison.
USA Next oscar winner lying homophobia Most Surreal Use Of Homophobic Propaganda: During the last election conservatives realized that these days it doesn't matter how outrageous your lies are because the media won't bother explaining why you're a liar. Instead, in order to be "fair and balanced," the media will actually help out by giving your lies the old "some people say..." treatment. After all, the Corporate Media don't want to be accused of being liberal, do they? So any old bullshit from the right is now treated as if it's an alternate version of the truth. Exhibit A: the Swift Boat Veterans, and the fact that somehow - thanks, "liberal" media - a lot of people have gotten the idea that George W. Bush's Vietnam record was more honorable that John Kerry's. Which is the complete opposite of the truth. Pretty amazing, huh?
And if it worked against a presidential candidate, then it ought to work against millions of seniors. Meet USA Next, the latest group of conservatives who intend to change reality by relying on the media's lack of interest in the truth. Here's how it works: Our Great Leader has a problem with the AARP because they have a lot of influence over seniors, and if they think his Social Security plan is a crock of shit, he's going to have a hard time selling it. So he needs some way to demonize them. Now obviously he can't come out and say that the AARP wants to - I dunno, just off the top of my head - get rid of the military and replace it with hot man-on-man action. But here's the clever part: he doesn't need to, because USA Next will do it for him! Take a look at this ad that was spotted running on the American Spectator website last week: Got that everyone? While the AARP is advising its members on the dangers of Bush's Social Security privatization scheme, USA Next informs us of the reeeeal AARP Agenda: to get rid of the military and replace it with hot man-on-man action. If I may slip into the Internet vernacular for a moment, WTF? I mean, talk about a non sequitur.
According to the New York Times, USA Next "has hired Chris LaCivita, an enthusiastic former marine who advised Swift Vets and P.O.W.'s for Truth, formerly known as Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, on its media campaign and helped write its potent commercials." The results, as you can see above, are fabulous. And Chris LaCivita isn't the only one - USA Next has either hired or is looking to hire several more people connected to the Swift Boat Veterans.
So as America attempts to have a serious debate on the future of Social Security, be on the lookout for more USA Next commercials over the coming weeks. Before you know it, the reeeeal AARP agenda will involve singing the praises of Osama bin Laden while dancing on the Ten Commandments.
Who are you and what did you do with Willie Green? :)
This is one of the few posts of yours that I completely agree with.
AARP's duplicity with Scudder re AARP pushing Scudder's mutual funds as a good investment while condemning ownership re Social Security.
The link below shows the incredible two faced lies by AARP. This link takes us to the AARP/Scudder investment site.
At this link there 38 Scudder Mutual Funds approved and pushed by AARP.
If investing in the stock market was so dangerous, why does AARP lend its name to Scudder for these 38 funds and have a joint web site?
http://aarp.scudder.com/aipt/index.jhtml?content=/aipt/funds/facts/index.jhtml
Please send this to your email lists and any organization which stands against AARP re social security reform.
http://aarp.scudder.com/aipt/index.jhtml?content=/aipt/funds/facts/index.jhtml
If you know anyone who owns the funds, you might want to suggest they sell the funds and send the AARP scare stance to the fund managers and CEO of Scudders.
http://aarp.scudder.com/aipt/index.jhtml?content=/aipt/funds/facts/index.jhtml
The only excuse, at the base of things, for no changes to be made to the way Social Security is structured, is that it is about the last legislative initiative by the New Deal that has not yet been changed, and therefore it is some kind of memorial to FDR.
FDR died 60 years ago, and his visage is STILL on dimes. Isn't that memorial enough? We no longer use vacuum tubes, or manual typewriters, or Maytag wringer washing machines with zinc-plated rinse tubs.
Time to bring this country out of the Great Depression, which was the original excuse for instituting Social Security. At one time, people saved for their retirement years, and in the 1930's, they saw a lifetime of savings get flushed away in a massive stock market collapse. The solution? Tax the working man while he is working, so his widow would not be entirely destitute in her waning years. With the most regressive tax this country has EVER laid on individuals. Today, total destitution is no longer the widespread problem it was once pictured as being. But the sort of regressive taxation that is being suggested does its bit in contributing to partial destitution.
I cancelled my membership during the 1992 elections because of their lies about President Bush I and their blind support of the Clintoons.
Also, if they are a non profit, they should not be allowed to do what they do in elections and situations like this.
These funds in particuliar are dogs that I wouldn't have in our portfolios.
One can only imagine the kickbacks that AARP gets to schill these funds to their gullible ones.
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