Part V: Social Security & Medicare

NUMBER EIGHT PRIORITY - SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE

Some background. Social Security was put into place during F.D. Roosevelt's reign. It was meant only as an emergency safety net for seniors and funded by ongoing payroll deductions. If these funds had been set aside in private accounts at that time, our politicians wouldn't be running around today scaring the senior that it's running out of money!! Our hard earned funds were deducted from the American paycheck along with the funds furnished from our employees and gathered up were then thrown away into the bottomless pit called "The General Budget." -- minor chord, please --

Not having the internet at our disposal yet, and getting our information from newspapers, magazines and (now, don't hiss) television news, we were all shocked to learn that we had no account anywhere where our funds were safe. In 1966 Ronald Reagan woke us up with this dreadful news in his speech that he gave during the campaign for George Murphy (Hollywood dancer).. All the California Republican candidates gave their solemn promise that the funds would be removed from the federal budget and placed securely in a safer place. This, of course, was promised but never implemented.

Skip to 1998 with Speaker Bob Livingston getting the jump on our old problem by hoping to present HR.1 which would set aside Social Security funds into a lockbox." Yeah, sure! Well, we all know what happened to our friend Bob. After 32 years, we are still in trouble on this. This problem is not a partisan one, all our house members have emptied our money into other programs. Do any of them remember which programs? Of course not!

Skip forward to these last two weeks. I figured the presidential candidates would give us options for saving our Social Security funds. After listening to as many debates as my cable company furnished, I discovered they all want CHANGE but fear the attack from the "left" and won't step up and talk about a logical fix.

Now where do we go? Back to the U.S. Constitution and find out who has the authority.

Section 7 says "All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives" I would like to believe that "saving" revenue shall follow the same rule.

Section 8 says that Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the U.S. May I assume saving said taxes shall also be their responsibility.

I would like to add here that everyone interested in the election approaching us should read over all of Section 8. It puts Congress completely in charge of all the things Clinton has done this last 7 years and if anyone really wants to pursue the illegality of his actions it's all there in black and white. Is that small hand up in the back of the room? Why it's Larry Klayman! "Bless you Larry." looks like he is fighting our battle alone.

Of course, there is no mention of Social Security or Medicare anywhere in the Constitution so I guess Washington D.C. is safe in their dereliction of duties all these years. It is time NOW to stop pointing fingers as who is to blame. We all are guilty anyway. It is time to follow a set plan of rules; we need a game plan.

First of all we need to put fiscal Republicans in the Congress and Senate as well as in the White House. A majority of 5 or 6 won't do it. We need candidates that can and will stand up to Gore/Bradley agenda of removing the rest of our freedoms by an increase in government programs. As long as these candidates understand the problem of restoring our control in the house and senate, I don't care which party they represent. I would welcome a Reform Party member, or a Libertarian into the fold. What we need are numbers not labels. Now we have our army ready, let's get some reinforcements from the history books. The minute any person mentions a plan for privatization (partial or full) of our Social Security funds, all hell will break lose from the left side of everywhere.

Here's where we need Colin Powell, George Patton and Napoleon to show us how to charge the enemy, step back and evaluate how much counter attack we should expect, have it planned out rehearsed, just like Patton did in Africa, and charge again until we win this stupid damn war against wasting our precious tax money. Folks, this battle won't be pretty. Gore/Bradley/Clintons (both) will pull out all the stops and use every personal FBI files at their disposal (900 plus, at last count). We won't have the FBI, CIA, Attorney General to bail us out of this war. It must be a "take no prisoners" kind of war. Now I don't mean we should be armed. Can't you just see Gore's face if we were? We should be informed in all the steps in presenting our plan to the House and Senate and (hopefully the White House). I have sat in front of this monitor reading page after page of Social Security plans. I won't bore you with them. You all know what they are. The finest and most complete plan comes from the Cato Institute. These wonderful men and women have presented a document that is well laid out and quite possible. I am better on the battlefield than in the think tank, so I will give you the address where you can find their plans. The Cato Project on Social Security Privatization has developed a market-based alternative to the current Social Security system. Read all about it!!

The Cato Institute

Social Security Administration

We will win this battle, of saving Social Security and our own futures, in only one way. We must work as a solid unit. We must memorize all the arguments that the left will throw at us and counter attack each precisely and firmly. This is exactly what is missing in the debates. I can't believe that these 6 Republicans aren't thoroughly prepared for the questions being asked them. They hem and haw, make statements one night and take a different stand the next. Can you imagine Chuck Heston going on the set of the 10 Commandments trying to remember which one comes after 3?

If one Republican Congressional candidate ever answers a question with "we must do it for the children," I will personally find him or her and slap them silly. The best action we can take now is to find our fiscal Republican Congressional candidate and put the Cato Institute's web site into their hands along with the U.S. Constitution with Section 8 dog-eared..... The natural progression would be for the Republican National Committee to work with us but I just can't see this happening. I can see the Libertarian party joining us on this issue, also the Reform party sending a few candidates to the house. All we can do is help prepare our house and senate candidates to know what to do and by what authority.

If, by some miracle, we can do this, then Medicare can be revised, made more efficient and be more useful to all Americans.

Published in the January 21, 2000 issue of Ether Zone. Copyright © 2000 Ether Zone Online. Reposting permitted with this message intact.