Promises promises:

[kallend 2,174]

"Social Security has been called the third rail of American politics, the one you're not supposed to touch because it might shock you. But if you don't touch it, you cannot fix it.

"And I intend to fix it.

"To the seniors in this country, you earned your benefits, you made your plans, and President George W. Bush will keep the promise of Social Security, no changes, no reductions, no way.

"Our opponents will say otherwise. This is their last parting ploy, and don't believe a word of it.

"Now is the time -- now is the time for Republicans and Democrats to end the politics of fear and save Social Security together.

"For younger workers, we will give you the option, your choice, to put part of your payroll taxes into sound, responsible investments.

"This will mean a higher return on your money in over 30 or 40 years, a nest egg to help your retirement or to pass on to your children.

"When this money is in your name, in your account, it's just not a program, it's your property.

GWB, at the GOP Convention, 2000

What has GWB, with a GOP controlled House and Senate, done about Social Security?

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

Well, not quite true. There WAS a budget surplus that could have been used, but he squandered it away.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[nacmacfeegle 0]

A wise man once said...

War, Huh,
what is it good for?
"ABSOLUTELY NOTHING."
Say it again....

Have good and more importantly, peaceful, weekend my transatlantic chums.

--------------------

He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

[Mirage63 0]

Hey Kallend,

You going to be at POP's this year? If so I'm going to apply some "Physics" to that little old head.

Hope to see you there

Fortson

[christelsabine 1]

Quote

A wise man once said...

War, Huh,
what is it good for?
"ABSOLUTELY NOTHING."

And there was another wise person which said:

"War is father of all things"

Sorry for my poor translation

I, of course, hate war. But this senctence is worth to think about twice.

Christel

dudeist skydiver # 3105

[rushmc 23]

More of the "Story" From the Heritage Foundation

http://www.heritage.org/press/dailybriefing/policyweblog.cfm?blogid=9C083F71-A0C9-D18A-0FF1D24A7C4784FB

Press Tip-Off: Behind the Census Poverty Report
08/26/04 12:58 PM The number is already all over the news: 1.3 million Americans joined the ranks of the poor between 2002 and 2003. That's according to this year's "Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States" report from the Census Bureau (PDF link), but there's so much context missing from reporters' coverage.

Here are a few points to keep in mind on today's numbers:

- The figures are from 2003, not from this year. Given the strong economic growth since 2003 and the major gain in working Americans (more Americans are working now than ever before, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics), it is likely that poverty has decreased over the past year.

- Poverty is a lagging economic indicator and hits its peak a year or more after the end of a recession.

- That said, the increase in poverty stemming from the most recent recession was about half the increase from each of the previous two recessions. This chart compares how several recessions affected the poverty rate.

- In previous recessions, child poverty increased significantly, but the most recent recession affected child poverty little. The 1980 recession caused a 5.5 percentage point jump in child poverty. The 1990 recession caused a 2.7 percentage point jump in poverty. The 2001 recession, in contrast, caused only a 1.6 percentage point rise in child povery. This chart compares how several recessions affected child poverty.

- Welfare reform worked: The 1996 welfare reform drove down black child poverty from 42 percent, about where it had been stuck for decades, to 30 percent in 2001. In 2003, the rate hit 33.6 percent. See this paper for more on welfare reform, recession, and child poverty. See this paper for what remains to be done in welfare reform.

- The Census report shows that the number of Americans without health insurance grew. But the Census numbers on this have long been unreliable, coming in well above other measures, such as SIPP and MEPS, and undercounting Medicaid enrollees. This undercounting expanded in 2003. This chart shows the growing gap in Medicaid enrollment figures. In this paper, released today, Derek Hunter criticizes the Census Bureau's count of the uninsured, which by the Bureau's own estimation is unsound. Heritage's Stuart Butler suggests how to address the problem of uninsurance among small-business employees by offering tax credits here.

- The nature of poverty: As Robert Rector and others detail in this qualitative and statistical study of poverty in America, poverty, as defined by the government, has a very specific and often counterintuitive meaning. Some fact about the poor (more in this table):

Forty-six percent of all poor households actually own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.
Seventy-six percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, 30 years ago, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.
Only 6 percent of poor households are overcrowded. More than two-thirds have more than two rooms per person.
The average poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)
Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 30 percent own two or more cars.
Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.
Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.
Seventy-three percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and a third have an automatic dishwasher.
- The importance of work: As this paper by Robert Rector and Rea Hederman shows, a very large part of the income differences between America's highest and lowest income earners can be explained simply by quantity of work. Adjusting the 2002 Census data to include tax burden and government and non-government benefits (such as health insurance), Rector and Hederman find that if working-age adults with the least income worked as many hours as their higher-income counterparts, inequality drops. How much? In this scenario, the top fifth earn $2.91 for every $1 at the bottom. If welfare were further reformed to really require work, poverty would drop further than it already has since the 1996 reforms. This report discusses the relationship between parental work and child poverty. This chart shows the effects of accounting for household size, taxes, benefits, and quantity of work on income inequality.

- Father absence: Two-thirds of poor children reside in single-parent homes. If poor mothers married the fathers of their children, almost three-quarters would immediately be lifted out of poverty. If welfare were further reformed to encourage marriage, poverty would drop further than it already has since the 1996 reforms. This report explains the effect of marriage on child poverty. Look here for charts and statistics on the effects of marriage on poverty and other social ills.

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[PhillyKev 0]

Quote

Quote

A wise man once said...

War, Huh,
what is it good for?
"ABSOLUTELY NOTHING."

And there was another wise person which said:

"War is father of all things"

Sorry for my poor translation

I, of course, hate war. But this senctence is worth to think about twice.

Christel

And another wise man said:

Ahhh, alcohol.
The cause of, and cure to most of life's problems.

[christelsabine 1]

Quote

A wise man once said...

War, Huh,
what is it good for?
"ABSOLUTELY NOTHING."

And there was another wise person which said:

"War is father of all things"

Sorry for my poor translation

I, of course, hate war. But this senctence is worth to think about twice.

Christel

[PhillyKev 0]

The wise man I quoted is Homer J. Simpson

[nacmacfeegle 0]

Speaking of which, its opening time here, off to the bar for me, have some cool beer folks.
Come join me in the Broken Drum, Auchenblae if your passing.
Peace.

--------------------

He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

[kallend 2,174]

Umm -

Thank you for pointing out Bush's pathetic economic performance and giving the GOP spin on it, but this was about Social Security.

What does anything you quoted have to do with his unfulfilled promises on Social Security? I think you're in the wrong thread.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[TheAnvil 0]

SS hasn't been fixed. This should be a second term issue for GWB. And EARLY in his second term. One might postulate that SS can't realistically be touched in a major way by ANY president in his first term because of the political repurcussions of doing so. Not sure if I'd buy that though.

Partial privatization could save this system...or at least prolong its life.

Vinny the Anvil
Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL
JACKASS POWER!!!!!!

[kallend 2,174]

Quote

SS hasn't been fixed. This should be a second term issue for GWB. And EARLY in his second term. One might postulate that SS can't realistically be touched in a major way by ANY president in his first term because of the political repurcussions of doing so. Not sure if I'd buy that though.

Partial privatization could save this system...or at least prolong its life.

"Now is the time " is what he said in 2000, not "Early in my second term".

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[flyhi 24]

Quote

"Now is the time " is what he said in 2000, not "Early in my second term".

I thought it was fixed. Every month they take more money out than ever.

Shit happens. And it usually happens because of physics.

[TheAnvil 0]

Yes he sure did. And the country is harmed by letting the system go on as is. Of course, Mr. sKerry could have introduced legislation to fix SS, as could any of his dem counterparts, but other than tax, tax, tax they really don't have a plan - or a clue.

Vinny the Anvil
Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL
JACKASS POWER!!!!!!

[kallend 2,174]

Quote

Yes he sure did. And the country is harmed by letting the system go on as is. Of course, Mr. sKerry could have introduced legislation to fix SS, as could any of his dem counterparts, but other than tax, tax, tax they really don't have a plan - or a clue.

I expect they were politely waiting for GWB to fulfill his campaign promises. After all, it was a CENTERPIECE of his acceptance speech.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[ChasingBlueSky 0]

Quote

"Now is the time " is what he said in 2000, not "Early in my second term".

John, you can't expect a "war president" to care about the people in his own country. Thats demanding too much!

_________________________________________
you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
I WILL fly again.....

[PhillyKev 0]

Yeah, he's too busy thinking up new ways to harm our country!

[ChasingBlueSky 0]

Quote

Yeah, he's too busy thinking up new ways to harm our country!

Bush thinking? Didn't think he could do that. Quick! Someone get him a copy of My Pet Goat and get Rove on the phone to make decisions for him.

_________________________________________
you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
I WILL fly again.....

[peacefuljeffrey 0]

Quote

Quote

SS hasn't been fixed. This should be a second term issue for GWB. And EARLY in his second term. One might postulate that SS can't realistically be touched in a major way by ANY president in his first term because of the political repurcussions of doing so. Not sure if I'd buy that though.

Partial privatization could save this system...or at least prolong its life.

Come on, Kallend, WHAT the FUCK?? Did you miss what happened on September 11th of the very next year, and all the shit that had to happen as a result? How could the focus possibly have been put on Social Security?

To me, Social Security is a minor issue anyway. It's possibly because I'm young enough to not think all that much about retirement, but also because I'm not naive enough to believe that any government, under any president, should be counted on to provide the money I'll need to live off when I am too old to work. If that's what people are counting on, it's probably because they're stupid, or didn't plan well enough for retirement while they were working.

-

"Now is the time " is what he said in 2000, not "Early in my second term".

-Jeffrey
"With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

[mnealtx 0]

Quote

Quote

SS hasn't been fixed. This should be a second term issue for GWB. And EARLY in his second term. One might postulate that SS can't realistically be touched in a major way by ANY president in his first term because of the political repurcussions of doing so. Not sure if I'd buy that though.

Partial privatization could save this system...or at least prolong its life.

"Now is the time " is what he said in 2000, not "Early in my second term".

Seeing as how the President doesn't write legislation, maybe you should be bitching at Congress? Of course, the Dems are against it, and I recall reading something somewhere about an effort to block any privatization of SS if it DOES come up in committee.

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[kallend 2,174]

Quote

Quote

Quote

SS hasn't been fixed. This should be a second term issue for GWB. And EARLY in his second term. One might postulate that SS can't realistically be touched in a major way by ANY president in his first term because of the political repurcussions of doing so. Not sure if I'd buy that though.

Partial privatization could save this system...or at least prolong its life.

"Now is the time " is what he said in 2000, not "Early in my second term".

Seeing as how the President doesn't write legislation, maybe you should be bitching at Congress? Of course, the Dems are against it, and I recall reading something somewhere about an effort to block any privatization of SS if it DOES come up in committee.

Let's see, GWB is leader of GOP and head of the executive branch.
1. Senate controlled by GOP
2. House controlled by GOP
3. "The Buck Stops Here"

Tell me what legislation to fix SS has been introduced by GWB.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[mnealtx 0]

Tell me how the PRESIDENT submits legislation!!

C'mon, Kallend...you're being deliberately obtuse....you know d*mned good and well that it's CONGRESS that intiates legislation. All the President can do is encourage Congress to submit legislation and sign/veto it when it reaches his desk.

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[PhillyKev 0]

Quote

All the President can do is encourage Congress to submit legislation

How much of that has he done?

[Ron 10]

Gee ya think a little thing like 9/11 changed his plans on what he wanted to do?

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

[kallend 2,174]

Quote

Gee ya think a little thing like 9/11 changed his plans on what he wanted to do?

9/11, the Universal Excuse for Bush's Failures.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.