Mythical Mandates & Social Security Piratization

It seems that the Bush White House and the Bush Republicans have conjured up a mythical mandate for their most unpopular and controversial policies out of the highly flawed 2004 Presidential Election. In the public statements of Bush and other Republican leaders, the widely disputed results of the election has made the White House immune from criticism for their failures in Iraq and Social Security ripe for plunder by Wall Street, despite public opinion polls to the contrary.

It was the Democratic Party and the labor union movement that created Social Security starting under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Democrats and labor unions have always been the true defenders and supporters of the Social Security program.

Wall Street and their minions in the Republican Party opposed the creation of Social Security. Various Republican leaders have called Social Security " communistic." Some Republicans have publicly stated it would "destroy the work ethic of Americans." Rants against Social Security can be found scattered in the public records of Congress and the US Senate by a huge number of Republicans over the years. Despite election year public claims of support, many Republican leaders have been trying to undermine Social Security from its beginning! These same negative attitudes have been directed at everything about the labor union movement by Wall Street leaders.

Wall Street has funded a decades-long PR campaign to distort public opinion on the entire Social Security program. Their weapon of choice in the political arena has been the Republican Party. The main PR theme is that "Social Security is a personal investment fund for individual taxpayers." This is a blatant lie designed to make it possible for Wall Street to raid the Social Security Tax Fund for their personal profit! It was never designed to invest personal savings.

Social Security is a tax that by design pledges the current work force to care for their parents, the disabled and orphans. These writers wrote about this issue in our "Social Security Reform" column back in April 200. The current program hits working class and middle class American severely while the wealthy are vastly underpaying their fair share. This unfair distribution of tax burden in percentage terms is the core funding problem of the Social Security program.

Bush Republican proposals actually do nothing to address this core problem. Instead, they actually undermine the existing Social Security program by making it an object of plunder by Wall Street interests. Privatization is actually Piratization as designed by the Bush White House. Average Americans understand this much better than Washington insiders, Wall Street leaders and the Corporate Media. In the most recent Washington Post polls on Bush's handling of Social Security, a mere 38 percent approved while an overwhelming 55 percent disapproved. These numbers closely mirrored the opinions held on the two major Parties in Congress where Republicans were viewed as best able to handle Social Security by a mere 37 percent. Democrats were favored by 50 percent of those surveyed!

Rumors that significant numbers of Democratic leaders are going to support Bush on Social Security are false. It has been widely reported on the Internet that Congressman Harold Ford, Jr. (D-TN) might support the Piratization of Social Security. These writers were provided by his press office with this link of a Teddy Bart appearance. It clearly demonstrates in the Congressman's own words that the rumors to be untrue. It has been widely speculated that Congressman Ford may eventually be on a future Democratic Presidential ticket. Support for Bush's Social Security Piratization would destroy the White House prospects for any Democrat!

Even many Republicans in House and Senate are deeply worried by the impact of Bush's proposals on Social Security on their early retirement from politics. Voters are very likely to punish the Republicans severely at the polls for supporting Bush on this issue. Mythical mandates will not help Bush in his efforts to deliver the Social Security Tax Fund to his political backers on Wall Street!

Written by Stephen Crockett and Al Lawrence (co-hosts of Democratic Talk Radio http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com ). Email: midsouthcm@aol.com .

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