WhatFinger


Elections have consequences, especially dishonest elections

Social Security, Medicare, and the State of the Union




In his State of the Union address last night, dishonest Joe Biden took another disgraceful cheap shot at Republicans by deceitfully claiming that Republicans wanted to "sunset" Social Security and Medicare. The ensuing uproar led him to pause his speech and claim that only a few Republicans wanted to do that... no, actually only one... contact his office for a copy of the proposal. He then continued his presentation of lies and distortions misrepresented as an accurate picture of the state of our Union.

Most politicians recognize that the Social Security and Medicare programs are a "third rail" of politics, and those who seek to challenge or reform the programs do so at their peril. The sad fact, though, is that these programs will die on their own, unless something is done soon.

Playing the blame game

The Democrats politicize any attempt at reform as Republicans trying to kill the programs, and use that dishonest message to drum up support. Rather than seeking ways to preserve the intent of the programs with viable solutions, they prefer to do nothing and let Republicans take the blame when these programs ultimately collapse. The fake solutions the Democrats propose are more of the tired old clichés they have used in the past - "make the rich pay their fair share", and "raise taxes on greedy corporations".

Most of us have been paying into Social Security for all our working lives, myself included. As a beneficiary of the programs, you can say I have a vested interest in their continuation. That is true, but as things stand, they will not continue for much longer unless things change. Republicans seem to be the only ones trying to do something positive about the situation, while Democrats sit on the sidelines and snipe at them and make unrealistic proposals that make good sound bites but destructive policy.

Built on lies

It doesn't help matters that the Social Security program was founded on a lie, and continues to promote the same. It was presented as a type of insurance program where each worker would have a type of pension account managed by the government to provide for them when they retired. The reality, supported by a court case, is that the individual account is just an accounting trick, and that no individual has any claim on their contributions made over their working lives. The money paid to Social Security is used to fund current government programs, and the benefits paid to retirees come from current taxes. Essentially, it is a government instituted Ponzi scheme.

Therein lies the root of the problem. Unlike private pension plans that use worker contributions to make investments that will ultimately generate the wealth to support retirement payments, the government program is a spend as you go approach. Both programs depend on having enough taxpayer dollars available to meet obligations. That relies, in turn, on having enough taxpayers available to pay for the scheme. Unfortunately, there won't be.


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Fix it now before it breaks

Republicans have been working for some time to come up with viable alternatives that would provide equivalent benefits to current Social Security recipients, would ensure financial solvency for the future, and would eliminate the burden on current and future taxpayers. Several plans have been proposed, with at least one that meets all criteria. Unfortunately, these plans have largely been rejected by Democrats.

The big problem for many is that by removing the Social Security and Medicare programs from government control, they remove the money received in Social Security payments from the general fund. Removing these tax receipts reduces tax revenues that can be used for other projects while keeping the expenditures disguised as contributions to Social Security. This would expose many Democrat pet projects as the boondoggles and pork programs they are. In addition to reducing funding for pet projects, an effective program would preclude the ability to blame Republicans for failing to address the problems. Truly a non-starter.

Democrat solutions

Actually, it isn't fair to say that Democrats don't propose solutions to save Social Security and Medicare. Most of their proposals, though, involve raising taxes and increasing government intervention. When Republicans naturally resist these proposals, they are accused of not wanting to implement "common sense" solutions, and just want to put profits before people. It would be helpful if Democrats devoted as much effort to working with Republicans to come up with real solutions as they put into coming up with derogatory slogans.


The sorry state of the Union

Besides the false claims about Republicans and Social Security, the Presumptive President went on to provide copious additional misinformation. He commented that he had reduced inflation. True, it is now merely unconscionable instead of impossible, so I suppose he is justified in that statement.

He did claim he created 12 million jobs during his tenure, although 9,3 million of those were restoration of jobs lost during his Covid lockdowns, so only 2.7 million were new, representing a sub anemic average net growth of less than 26,000 jobs nationally per month in the last two years.

His solution to illegal immigration was to reform immigration rules so that anyone coming across would no longer be considered illegal. That is a solution, of sorts, I suppose.

He expressed pride in his economically destructive efforts to eliminate the use of oil under the false assumption that would somehow eliminate climate change. Unfortunately, reductions in fossil fuel use are unlikely to have any significant effect on a changing climate, but will have huge negative effects on nearly every aspect of our lives and livelihoods, including reducing our ability to adapt to and mitigate any effects of climate change.




He proceeded throughout his rant to cast aspersions on Republicans and conservatives, referring to pro-life people as "extremists"


Somehow he managed to blame Covid for the huge increases in crime in Blue cities, while ignoring the efforts of Democrats to defund police departments in those same cities. Cause and effect - what are you talking about? Everyone knows that police create crime. If there were no police to arrest anyone, there wouldn't be any crime.

He proceeded throughout his rant to cast aspersions on Republicans and conservatives, referring to pro-life people as "extremists", and bringing out the debunked idea that the January 6 protesters were insurrectionists who were the greatest threat to our country since the Civil War, instead of loyal patriots exercising their First Amendment rights to petition the government for fair and honest elections. But then, he had the podium so he could speak any falsehood he wished.

Of course, he reiterated his desire to make the country safe for autocrats by abolishing automatic weapons. What would he ban next? Bows and arrows? Rocks?

He ended with his usual claim that he was the President for all, although he wasn't clear if that included all China, all Iran, or perhaps all Ukraine.

Elections have consequences, especially dishonest elections.

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David Robb -- Bio and Archives

David Robb is a practicing scientist and CTO of a small firm developing new security technologies for detection of drugs and other contraband.  Dave has published extensively in TheBlueStateConservative, and occasionally in American Thinker.


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