Don’t let Bush destroy program
Published 9:00 pm Saturday, January 29, 2005
The Social Security Administration says that the trust fund will not run out until 2042. This is not a crisis, but a success. Hopefully our democracy will last as long.
On Dec. 20 President Bush told reporters “Social Security will run out of money in 2018.” Truth is, 2018 is the projected time the Social Security Trust Fund will have to kick in to help pay benefits. The surplus should last until 2042. This is the trust fund that is helping fund the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. He is taking the trust fund money and replacing it with U.S. government bonds. When President Bush tells the American people, “Social Security will run out of money in 2018,” he is telling me the government has no intention of paying back the money taken for these bonds. Tell the foreign countries who loan the United States money and receive U.S. government bonds that we don’t intend to honor their bonds. I’m sure Congress would not let this happen. A bond issue is a true commitment to repay.
The Social Security program has been very successful throughout its history. Without it we would have 50 percent more people over 65 in poverty. The administration’s cost to run the program is less than 1 percent of the benefits. This is a good program for us.
We have become all too familiar with the fabrications of this administration – more “weapons of mass deception.”
Don’t allow the Bush administration and the Wall Street financial service lobbyists to destroy the most successful program we have.
Patrick Rainsberger
Snohomish
