Posted on 03/25/2005 7:22:30 AM PST by FreeKeys
ping
LBJ got the Congress to pass legislation allowing the comingling of SS and general revenue funds. He promptly started spending the SS trust fund surplus (it was $53 Billion, as I recall, and was "real cash") in 1967 on his "Guns and Butter" programs which financed the Vietnam War and the "Great Society." The $53 Billion he spent masked his general revenue budget deficits.
Subsequent Presidents and Congresses have continued to spend the SS surplus for the same reason: to buy votes.
It matters not whether SS is a self supporting program. It is, pure and simple, a classic Ponzi scheme, and cannot be self sustaining over the long run.
Add that to the fact that the U.S. Constitution does not authorize the U.S. Government to run an insurance business, and you have enough clear and present evidence to shut the program down.
It also must be said that the long run does not interest most Congresscritters: the only thing that matters to them is the next election, a major reason the Demogogues to come out and play with the electorate's minds.
I would remind you that LBJ died before the SS sh!t hit the fan. He can no longer be held to account for his transgressions while President. The believers among us know that he is being held to account now, but that is small comfort for the mess he left us to fix.
And, of course, the mess has yet to be fixed. Most Congresscritters hope to die before We the People find out how bad they screwed us for their own gain.
Time is running out, and the grasshoppers are still in denial. We ants have our work cut out for us!
Nice reply - sorry for my tardiness in recognizing it.
No problem, FRiend.
Someday, someone will tell the LBJ story.
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