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Hornswaggle is an alternate spelling of hornswoggle, an archaic word that means to bamboozle or hoodwink. I take my pronunciation from the late Harvey Korman in "Blazing Saddles" -- "I want rustlers, cutthroats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, conmen, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswagglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass kickers, shit kickers and Methodists!" |
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Thursday, February 26, 2004Follow-up on Krugman Social Security ThangBlogging is so current events driven. "Hornswaggler! What do you think about the amendment to ban gay marriage?" "Shit I don' know, bitch. I'm just tryin' to sell this crack." It's hard to stay on top of everything. And then the emails. God, the emails. Everyone seems to want to know my opinion. You want to know my opinion? Yes, it's a sign of weakness that Bush made the call for the amendment to ban gay marriages, that Karl Rove doesn't think the economy and Iraq are going to cut general election mustard. Yeah, there probably aren't enough votes in Congress. Yes, Omarosa is a Queen Bitch and needs to get kicked off "The Apprentice." I mean, seriously. Who the fuck would hire that psychopath after watching this show? "You know what? That malingering, incompetent bitch is just who we need to shake up our marketing team." But let's return to social security. Publically, President Bush remained in La La Land regarding the budget deficit and the impending fiscal crisis vis a vis social security. "Don't worry, man. I've got it all under control. I'm gonna like cut this budget in half in like five years, dude." "Do you have any numbers on that, Mr. President?" "You betcha, I've got some numbers. This bag of reefer I just smoked from weights 1.3 ounces. Heh heh heh." And he's going to continue on this line until he is reelected, if that meteor should happen to smash us. He'll continue blithely to say that there's no crisis, there's no problem, we can cut taxes and rebuild two countries and rebuild our economy and expand Medicare and do everything else we need to do. That's the bait. And then, after the election, mark my words, you'll get the switch. "America's seniors will," he'll announce, "in this time of great sacrifice, be forced to take a cut in their benefits. But they will be able to take that money they lose and invest it in the stock market. And there's some other good news. I just saved a load of money on my car insurance by switching to Geico." Bush's social security plan has, from the outset, defied logic. His proposal (echoed in the above Times article by a Republican congressman*) for Americans to take a portion of their social security payments and invest it in the stock market, as Krugman has hammered home over and over again, ignored one small factoid. The money we twenty-somethings pay into social security right now every time a payroll tax is taken out of our paycheck doesn't go to us. It goes to current retirees. Accordingly, the money that will fund our social security payments will come from a generation that isn't even born yet. The impending social security crisis is due to the fact that, when Baby Boomers retire, and that's happening soon, so many people will be due payments that there won't be enough money in the system to pay for it. Bush's proposal would have required putting even more money into the system, because when the government takes money out and puts it into individual accounts, that amount would be subtracted from the money received by current retirees. To compensate, more money would have to be put into the system. And, if Bush's plan were adopted, this would hold true until the first generation that put money in their own accounts retired, or about 20-40 years. So, without drastically cutting benefits to current retirees, Bush's plan for social security would cost significantly more to implement than is currently allocated for the program. And this is on top of the fact that social security was already facing a revenue shortfall. And this on top of the record budget deficits due to his tax cuts. How does he get away with ... with ... what was it he accused Gore of? Oh, right. Fuzzy math. Darn liberal media. *"Those proposals are not the right answer," said Representative E. Clay Shaw Jr., Republican of Florida and chairman of a House subcommittee on Social Security. "There is a viable alternative that doesn't require tax increases or benefit cuts. Allow workers to save today through voluntary personal accounts that back Social Security with real assets." This assertion is just flat wrong and the fact that the Times doesn't point this out is disturbing. It ought to run: "'There is a viable alternative,' said Shaw, offering an alternative that isn't viable." Where did I read the other day that if Bush said the Earth was flat, the headlines the next day would be: Bush Claims Earth Flat, Opinions Vary. .: posted by hornswaggler 12:23 AM| |
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