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rulemylife -> RE: Sanctimonious Deficit Hawks Target Social Safety Net (4/29/2010 2:05:55 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: brainiacsub
Entitlements such as Social Security should be on the table. Everyone will have to sacrifice to get us out of this debt shithole, but I question the credibility of anyone who takes a partisan stance on this issue. Cuts to defense, reduction or elimination of wasteful govt programs, and increased taxes all need to be considered as part of the solution.
<edited to add: Consider the source. The Huff Post is not exactly unbiased in its approach.>
Why should Social Security be on the table?
This isn't a welfare program.
The article sums it up very well:
Peterson, however, just can't help himself when it comes to Social Security; for instance, he asks guest after guest to explain to the audience how the Social Security Trust Fund, which holds more than $2.5 trillion in government debt, is actually a fiction.
That $2.5 trillion Trust Fund is the repository of payroll taxes paid by generations of working Americans, and the government bonds it holds are backed by the full faith and credit of the United States of America.
But to Peterson, that doesn't count, because the actual money that was paid in has been spent on other things and the government, to pay it back, would have to find the money somewhere else -- maybe in taxes, maybe by borrowing more money.
So while he won't say it in so many words, Peterson is essentially advocating for the U.S. to default on its debts -- not to the Chinese, of course, (that would "reduce investor confidence"), but to the American working people.
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