One Big Lie

The lie is repeated so often that I don't even remember where on TV that I heard it last.  You've heard it before, which pretty much goes like this: "Social Security will not be around for the young people of today."  Of course, if you are ideologically inclined to get rid of the New Deal in the first place, the lie that Social Security cannot last serves your purpose very well.  After all, if the Corporate Behemoth, through prevarication and propagation by the powerful corporate media, can convince people that something that they are paying into through their work every week has no chance to benefit the People's own interests, then the behemoth has won half the battle.  Once, when I was in a coffee shop, a young barista, in his 20's presumably, told me that he had no chance to see Social Security.  I asked why did he feel that way?  I can't remember his answer exactly, but it was more or less along the lines that this was the general impression that everybody had.  I told him that the only reason that Social Security would disappear would be that the wrong people got voted into office. Social Security, supported by the payroll (F.I.C.A.) tax, has always been financially strong, and as long as the payroll tax is adjusted accordingly when it needs to be, Social Security will continue to be a very sustainable financial insurance program for the infirmed, the disabled, and the elderly.  The cap on the payroll tax (meaning the top or richest income above a certain amount is not taxed), which is set on the first hundred-or-so thousand dollars of income, should be removed entirely, and that would very likely secure the viability of Social Security (S.S.) forever. 

I don't agree with those who say that S.S. should be means-tested, because that would more or less convert the meaning of S.S. from insurance program to welfare program, and thus give  political credibility to those who never want to raise or remove the cap on payroll taxes, especially those whose ultimate goal is to destroy Social Security.  After all, those who want to get rid of the program don't need it since they are so talented with money, livelihood and just about everything else in life, except of course compassion for their fellow citizens who may not be as "talented" as they are.  There's a reason for Social Security, because everybody is not rich or even well-to-do, so the payroll tax savings that we have gained through our work throughout the years have been entrusted to Uncle Sam for our own benefit when we need it due to illness or old age, and let's face it, a lot of people simply cannot save money, because they have to use practically every penny they make for practical survival, or may just not be so financially enlightened as to make the careful investments of money that the proponents of privatizing S.S. imagine everyone is.  Actually, they don't imagine any such thing, since they mostly just don't care if many people become destitute or greatly impoverished. In other words, "Let them eat cake."  This is the mindset of the Corporate Behemoth even though S.S. has not contributed one cent to the present federal deficit and is its own fund, separate from the General Fund, and will have no problem with being viable as long as the proper adjustments or tweaks are made, and if counterproductive decisions are not continued, namely the Obama regime's relatively recent decision to lower the payroll tax without a corollary removal or raising of the tax cap.  The Obama regime is part and parcel of the Corporate Behemoth, after all, so despite that this is a Democratic Party presidency (as Obama is no F.D.R.), S.S. possibly has the problem of the wrong politicians in office, today, which is the only problem that it has, as I told the barista.  Any other so-called major problem is basically the propaganda of the wolves lying in wait to make a feast of the trillions of dollars at stake.

- by Mark Greene

[revised on 12/10/12]

If possible, please, consider contributing to the Party of Commons by sending a check or money order ($10 recommended) to Mark Greene's Party of Commons or $10 to the Director of Elections Campaign that will be on the ballot in 2015 (to Mark Greene for Director of Elections); for either address, write to P.O. Box 612, Bellevue, WA 98009. Thank you!

Mark is probably the only politician in Washington that had the temerity to keep the 2004 election shenanigans in the news as late as 2012 and to call out names. Help us solve the mystery of "The Other Curious Election of 2004" (WA 9th Congressional District U.S. Rep. primary) by contacting real journalists and asking them to look into it. Elections are too important for shams to be ignored and for accountability to be neglected.

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