“They’re Coming For Your Social Security!”
“They’re Coming For Your Social Security!”
Let me explain how this shell game works, the usual lie...er line, goes like this; social security is paid for by a separate tax, so it doesn’t add a cent to the deficit. This, of course, is nonsense. Yes, it is paid for by a separate tax, but, since the only source of income the government has come from taxes, social security is just one more tax in an endless flood of taxes taken from working Americans and given to the government to manage. Which, the government manages, very, very poorly.
This is how we ended up with some twenty-three trillion dollars of debt. And, before someone launches into “Donald Trump’s budget is killing Americans,” every president for forty years, give or take, has doubled the national debt. This includes Bill Clinton who allegedly had a budget surplus. This budget surplus was an accounting trick, as evidenced by the fact that “National Debt,” (which is the real issue) basically doubled under Bill, as it did under Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Bush senior, Bush Jr., with Barack Obama spending more than every prior president combined. But then, that is par for the course for Washington, regardless of which party is in control.
This is key to understanding how the shell game works. Our latest budget fiasco is no more President Trump’s budget than it was Obama’s. They’re just the CEO’s sent in to help manage our fiscal nightmare, with very little power to actually do so. It’s Congress that controls the purse strings.
Heres’ a bit of clarity; the deficit, is just the amount of spending over and above the government’s actual income. If the government spends more than it takes in—and it does with relentless regularity, there are two choices, grow the economy to pay down your debts and cut spending, or, raise taxes, which hurts economic growth, while continuing to spend like a crack fiend. The latter is almost always the government’s preferred choice.
Contrary to popular opinion, it isn’t the great war machine that’s responsible for most of our spending. About 17% of our annual budget is military spending, while nearly 70% of the budget goes to three things, social security, Medicaid, and Medicare. These three, more than anything else, drive our debt. Not war. Not the Pentagon. And it doesn’t matter, Democrat or Republican, the debt grows like an amorphous blob, a black hole, sucking in American’s hard earned money, never to be seen again.
Here are the real culprits….you ready? Go look in the mirror….because it’s you, the American taxpayer, who allow themselves to be hornswoggled and bamboozled by silver-tongued devils of a political variety. Americans are largely clueless about such matters, and that is why the debt grows and grows. If not for that...politicians would do their job and stop robbing the people blind.
Now, watch as everyone descends into their tribal affiliations and begins to toss incoherent memes around, offering voodoo economics as a justification for keeping the lies going. Just as long as their preferred enemies can be blamed. That will be good enough in this all or nothing gambit of the deaf, dumb, and blind, leading the deaf, dumb, and blind.
"Mutually assured destruction?"
You bet.
Mark Magula
Let me explain how this shell game works, the usual lie...er line, goes like this; social security is paid for by a separate tax, so it doesn’t add a cent to the deficit. This, of course, is nonsense. Yes, it is paid for by a separate tax, but, since the only source of income the government has come from taxes, social security is just one more tax in an endless flood of taxes taken from working Americans and given to the government to manage. Which, the government manages, very, very poorly.
This is how we ended up with some twenty-three trillion dollars of debt. And, before someone launches into “Donald Trump’s budget is killing Americans,” every president for forty years, give or take, has doubled the national debt. This includes Bill Clinton who allegedly had a budget surplus. This budget surplus was an accounting trick, as evidenced by the fact that “National Debt,” (which is the real issue) basically doubled under Bill, as it did under Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Bush senior, Bush Jr., with Barack Obama spending more than every prior president combined. But then, that is par for the course for Washington, regardless of which party is in control.
This is key to understanding how the shell game works. Our latest budget fiasco is no more President Trump’s budget than it was Obama’s. They’re just the CEO’s sent in to help manage our fiscal nightmare, with very little power to actually do so. It’s Congress that controls the purse strings.
Heres’ a bit of clarity; the deficit, is just the amount of spending over and above the government’s actual income. If the government spends more than it takes in—and it does with relentless regularity, there are two choices, grow the economy to pay down your debts and cut spending, or, raise taxes, which hurts economic growth, while continuing to spend like a crack fiend. The latter is almost always the government’s preferred choice.
Contrary to popular opinion, it isn’t the great war machine that’s responsible for most of our spending. About 17% of our annual budget is military spending, while nearly 70% of the budget goes to three things, social security, Medicaid, and Medicare. These three, more than anything else, drive our debt. Not war. Not the Pentagon. And it doesn’t matter, Democrat or Republican, the debt grows like an amorphous blob, a black hole, sucking in American’s hard earned money, never to be seen again.
Here are the real culprits….you ready? Go look in the mirror….because it’s you, the American taxpayer, who allow themselves to be hornswoggled and bamboozled by silver-tongued devils of a political variety. Americans are largely clueless about such matters, and that is why the debt grows and grows. If not for that...politicians would do their job and stop robbing the people blind.
Now, watch as everyone descends into their tribal affiliations and begins to toss incoherent memes around, offering voodoo economics as a justification for keeping the lies going. Just as long as their preferred enemies can be blamed. That will be good enough in this all or nothing gambit of the deaf, dumb, and blind, leading the deaf, dumb, and blind.
"Mutually assured destruction?"
You bet.
Mark Magula