Paying for the Deficit: Let Them Eat Cake

The president’s deficit reduction commission was a response to a series of popular myths—that the federal deficit is a root cause of our economic distress and that Social Security is a root cause of the deficit. Over time—once the economy is strong again—the deficit must be brought down, as Bill Clinton achieved with his tax and budget packages in the 1990s.

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[Obama's] deficit commission has targeted Social Security, which has nothing to do with the deficit. The program has a $2.5 trillion surplus right now, rising to $4.3 trillion by 2023.

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The surpluses, we’re informed, aren’t real because the government spends the money year to year on other programs, and what’s “borrowed” from the trust fund won’t be there when it’s needed. But the borrowing is secured; the trust fund holds a form of federal bonds that is widely regarded as the safest investment on earth. Are we supposed to make good on bonds for the Chinese and for high-end investors, but not for retirees whose yearly Social Security averages just $14,000? This argument is hardly worth the dishonest breath expended on it.

  The Week

Even those who are ideologically opposed to "social programs" as confiscatory or "socialist" should find this glaring disparity in treatment highly objectionable. The government policies which most benefit the wealthiest -- the owners of the Government -- continue unabated: endless war, private Surveillance State explosions, Wall Street bailouts, too-big-to-fail banks, perhaps even extending Bush tax cuts, while the programs on which the most vulnernable depend are targeted to pay for all that.

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[The] true causes of America's debt and deficits are absolutely sacrosanct and will never be attacked by this [Deficit] Commission.

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Those genuine debt-causing policies are "sacrosanct" because the people who profit from them own and control Washington (and share common socio-economic interests with the millionaire Commission members targeting social programs and the billionaires who are behind this). It's the people who don't control Washington -- ordinary Americans who need Social Security -- who are being targeted in order to feed even further the fattest, most piggish factions actually in control.

  Glenn Greenwald

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.