The Cost of Privatizing Social Security?
By bluegal Tuesday Sep 25, 2007 3:28pm
Well, let's just talk about the cost of having the President travel around talking about privatizing Social Security, shall we?
After long delays, due in part to the refusal of the White House to cooperate, ...a GAO report [was released] assessing the costs to taxpayers of a 2005 White House initiative to support the President’s efforts to privatize Social Security.
The initiative included campaign-style events featuring the President and a roster of top Administration officials as well as the creation of a “Social Security Information Center” in the Department of the Treasury. The analysis shows that the White House effort cost more than $2.8 million, including more than $1.6 million for staging the events, more than $800,000 for Air Force One and Air Force Two travel, and more than $200,000 for the creation of the Treasury Department’s privatization war room and website. The $2.8 million estimate is an underestimate of the true costs, as it does not include the cost of staff time, Secret Service protection, and other expenses.
Representative Henry Waxman's fact sheet on the findings (PDF file) is here.
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If the idiotic public let's this moronic excuse for a human being undermine the greatest social program in the history of the planet, then this country deserves everything it gets from that point on.
Goddamn it! Why I can't I just walk away from giving a shit about politics? It's like country music ... it just depresses the shit out of me. I want to walk away and just be happier. Fuck. It works for the 29%'ers ... even the 50%'ers. Is there a methadone clinic for politics?
Liberal AND Proud @ 1:
That's just it. We deserve everything we've gotten over the entire Bush administration. The people who had the power to keep him out of office either didn't show up, or voted for the wrong guy.
isn't it wonderful that public money is being used for the capitalists to promote their own embezzlement?
america is on a ever increasing speed heading to destruction......good night and good luck.
Bueller?
The Chimp strikes again!
Is Ben Stein going on tour with him?
The photo looks like a "write your own caption" piece so allow me : ' President informs audience they can trade benefits for rapture .'
Socially, I'm insecure. I'm all for keepin' that private. Don't tell anyone. Shhhhhhhhhh!
What's worse than having Chimpy as president?
Picking up the tab for everything he does.
Ben Stein is another Republican I want to keep away from my stall...
Gotta be one of the most expensive dog and pony shows ever. But hey, it's not his money, right?
PurplePatriot @ 2:
I feel the same way. Every time I turn away, I must look back. Almost like a train wreck about to happen, that I just have to watch. Unfortunatly, we are riding that train, and the wreck is gonna hurt.
It's already hurting.
and the Democrat party will do exactly nothing about it. bunch of useless wussies.
So, $2.8MM. Wasn't that about 40% of what we spent on the 9/11 investigation. Stunning...
Remember, Christmascardgate was the greatest tragedy ever to befall mankind. Using millions of taxpayers' dollars to promote privatization and industrialization and corruption of Social Security? Why, that's just "partisanship" and "criminalizing politics"!
Our government is broken. Fuck President Cheney and his sock puppet Bush.
"The White House refused to provide basic information in response to GAO’s requests."
Really?Jeez,that doesn't sound very democratic...
BTW,although Ben Stein is a wrong headed Repug,he is one of the few conservatives I've written who responded in kind.
He's quite a nice guy-apart from his association(since Nixon)with these thugs.
Not to trivialize this worthy topic, but our corrupt f*cking government pissed away more than that on Iraq in the time it took me to read that post.
pinkobait @ 18:
Ben Stein's views become crazier every day. He now denies global warming and thinks we should be teaching creationism.
His status as an intellecshul of any consequence is hereby voided.
The White House refused to provide basic information in response to GAO’s requests...
The $3 Million spent is minor compared to the arrogance and lack of transparancy in the executive branch. I think that's where Waxman is really steamed. If you think about it, Bill Clinton spent public funds promoting NAFTA. But I think it was limited to lunches and some entertainment of lawmakers at the White House. It didn't involve a tour with Air Force One.
Adding the cost of staff time (unless there were new staffers specifically hired for this initiative) and the cost of Secret Service protection wouldn't make sense anyway. Those people would still be working and getting paid regardless of what the President is doing.
Giggidy @ 22:
True enough. But while the cost can't be measured it hard dollars, the cost is real. Those same staffers could have been working on projects like ordering armored hummers, or body armor, or _________. Fill in the blank; because it could go on for a while.
And these are suppose to be the fiscally responsible ones eh???? The GOP, party of the fiscally responsible people... Riiigghtt... Well,fuck this shit! Cons and crooks every damned one of them.. Privatize social security? Paint a pretty p.r. picture for it.? Use taxpayer money to fund the efforts?? Given all the other 'benefits' the GOP has showered on America since 94, let alone the 2000 'election', is the irony dripping yet??? Fuck me to tears, if I wanted to buy into getting screwed in the ass seven ways from sunday, I'd at least like a kiss or reacharound to go with it... Maybe some lube.. These pricks don't even want to do that. Just serve up shit and want everyone to pretend its actually a tasty treat and embrace it in denial of common fucking sense. This privatize SSI scam.. Yet again.. It's getting fucking old...JD
if the dems give bush his way on social security, then it's time to replace the entire senate and house of reps.
i am tired of being sold out to corporate interests whose only blood and sweat is our money. it's time to take a stand and clean house if this happens.
I wish there was a comical thread here today. This has been such a sucky day as far as news is concerned. Just one bummer thing after another. I need to laugh and I need a cocktail. I really don't care which one comes first. I'm not complaining about C&L postings, I'm complaining about the general atmosphere in our country. Like others, I just want to turn off all information and not know what's happening, but I can't do that. Even if our country is going to hell in a hand-basket, I want to keep up on the map and know where we are at all times.
A Richard Head @ 13:
hey ! the train wreck has happened. it's like all Americans are on the tv show "ghost whisperer" and you don't know YOU ARE DEAD.
Why it is impossible that Social Security is “broken and needs to be fixed”.
The answers are apparent to those willing to do a little simple math. Follow the bouncing equations.
The average life expectancy of an American, (white, male), is 72.
The average age an American begins working is 18.
The average age an American can retire & begin collecting Social Security benefits 65.
Subtract 18 from 72 = 54 years on average of paying into Social Security.
Subtract 65 from 72 = 7 years on average of collecting from Social Security, for only 50% of the population that live that long.
What does this tell us?
Most Americans work for 50 years during their lives paying into Social Security.
50% of all Americans never live long enough to collect benefits for more than 7 years.
40% percent of Americans die and never get to collect any benefits at all. Hmm. Where does the money go?
Bottom line; This means that there should be an overwhelming surplus of money since so much is paid in for so long, by so many, yet so few even live long enough to collect benefits.
To make things more easily understandable, when politicians start talking about “privatization” think of it as "pirate –ization", and pirates steal.
"does not include the cost of staff time, Secret Service protection, and other expenses".
Not to mention $5.00 meatballs. Every single thing about this administration is a failure, especially NCLB.
Secret service protection and staff involvement away from the White House would certainly create extra costs, the government is required to pay per diem (food and lodging costs) and travel expenses.
Stein looks like the lolrus who was promised a very big bukket to clap his flippers on all the right cues.
The Republicans beat Bill Clinton over the head with this during his waning year in office. In fact they tried to make it another Clinton scandal. It was stupid and petty then as it is stupid and petty now. Evey president wastes tax payer money trying to sell their defunct policies. So why the fuck are we wasting time discussing it then?
Why is it that the only people who want to "fix" Social Security are the people who don't need Social Security?
It's more about their resentment of having to pay into a system that doesn't immediately make them money, and trying to figure out a way of getting out of contributing to the society that they've been raping and pillaging.
Has ANY idea, plan, or policy this current White House has come up with actually worked? Why on earth would we think that they can fix or save ANYTHING? Much less that that is their actual intention.
I, for one, do not want my future "solved" by a C- student.
To think I watched "Win Ben Stein's Money" not too long ago. That photo made me gag.
Does anyone know whether or not the Colbert Report is actually done in Ben Stein's old studio?
The cost of this president's neverending photo-ops is probably enough to fund a small nation. Add to that, the other crap he wastes money on. (It's all "charged" too, to you, the taxpayer, with interest, for the next governement to deal with, and for you to pay.) That'll be his legacy to you; paying off his debt.
F Bush and his Cato Institute road show
Erik @ 32:
Or by somebody who is invaluable in driving oil speculations into financial disasters....
Every where the Chimp goes is paid for by taxpayers. This is a little off topic but I felt I needed to show to the money waste the chimp unleashes everywhere he goes. I was recently flying from Kona to Honolulu 9/8 and was delayed 3 hours, one of the 3 hours sitting on the tarmac, because Chimp boy decided to stop into Hickam Air Force Base for (1.) Lunch (2.) Photo Op (3.) Iraq propaganda peep rally, after attending the OPEC...sorry APEC summit in Australia. This not only delayed my flight but every flight going into Oahu/Honolulu. Travelers, people picking up the travels, people missing connecting flights, people waiting for those that missed their flights, Flight Attendants missing there sons/daughters they haven't seen in years(as was ours). Thousands of people displaced and having to pay for that privilege and then sit and wait while this phony plays pResident. Complete disregard for the common man and no plan to not disrupt the genral public and let us go about our business to help pay for his (1.) Lunch (2.) Photo Op (3.) Iraq propaganda peep rally.
Hickam Air Force Base is more than secure yet there was a no fly zone for 3 hours around HNL? Please let us Impeach this creep and send him to The Hague where he can get the appropriate treatment. Karma has to come down on this fool.
George is looking very Alfred E Neumanish in that photo!
iraqconcilable @ 8:
How will we get treated for our rupture then?
bush is completely full of shit if he thinks he is going to take away our social security. he has already unlawfully taken many of the freedoms guaranteed in the constitution. he should quite stealing from the american people to support his delusions.
Hmm,..$2.8 million for a traveling circus that never amounted to anything,..where have I heard this before?,...
Oh yeah, that's right, the 9/11 commission "investigation",..
These events were closed events, right? Isn't that illegal? He does all this traveling to show he's in tune with & listening to "the American people" but he doesn't actually meet anyone that's not an animatronic figure escaped from Disneyworld with run-amok programming issues.
Conservatives everywhere will never allow the government to "control" their health care, but will be glad to trust their nest egg. Even though the gov will only pay the bills within socialized medicine, not administer the care.
I'm sick and tired of their bullshit photo-op backdrops. Whatever it says, they certainly plan to do the opposite.
dadams @ 40:
He will only quit when he is forced to quit by Congress. At this point, I don't know whether he is stealing or if Congress is simply giving things away.
You know, go fuck yourself Ben Stein, you crooked bastard. You too Dumya. It's MY money. I'VE BEEN PAYING INTO SS FOR THE LAST 35 YEARS. And now for the sake of "fairness" I have to give MY money away.
Keep your goddamn hands off of it.
Oh, and just for good measure, go fuck yourself too Mr. Cheney.
I don't get it. It is well known that the more Lil' Bush spoke about raping Social Security, the worse the proposed scam did in public opinion polls. They quite literally could have staged a trained chimp holding a microphone and uttering nonsense into it at each stop, saving a few million dollars in the process since an entire infrastructure designed to protect the Shrub wouldn't need to be present. In the end, the chimp would have been no less effective in selling the scam than the Shrub was.
At what level of crook does the radar show he's a crook?
Tory tool.
Heckuva job MSM.
Isn't this against the law? In our town the school district was once sued for using tax payer money to campaign to pass a bond. Maybe some lawyer should file a class action suit and every US taxpayer can join. If congress won't stop this gangster maybe the citizens can.
Dear President Bush, may you rot in hell for eternity.
iraqconcilable @ 8:
Caption-Ben Stein:
Oh Goody, take more money from people that need it.
[...] As the blogosphere is ripe with such examples I’ll just decide upon this brilliant piece from Crooks and Liars about how privatizing Social Security is bad: After long delays, due in part to the refusal of the White House to cooperate, …a GAO report [...]
If social security is broke, Bush and the republicans have stolen it because it was not broke when the bastard took office, just like none of the federal agencies were in the deplorable positions they now find themselves in all because the republicans want to show how government does not work as they have de-funded all of them and cut down on the staffs that are necessary to get the jobs done and put them though all these privatized surveys that cost them millions of dollars to tell them what they already know They want to privatize all of them and make it all better for us.
This is the kind of shit we are getting and will continue to get from these criminals, until we get the dame guts to kick all these ass holes out of our government.
Hey Everyone look....
Its the worst president ever sitting next to the new host of VH1's "America's Most Smartest Model" (and no...that isn't a typo)
Yes...lets listen to how 'they want to run' social security...by putting it into the pockets of people that can lose that money in a day.....
The first fuck up in this debate is allowing proponents of "privatization" to use the word "Privatization" at all. It's a "P" word alright, but the word is "Plunder". It is a process of theft.
The thugs and criminals who brought us Iraq and Enron are being allowed to conceive of and control the issues and any subsequent debate. They are being allowed to craft paradigms, which (hopefully) nobody will notice or question. Can't let them do this. Their every word must be examined and refuted, because once a paradigm takes root - whether or not it is true or false - the game is largely over. Inertia takes over. They win....it's the Newt Gingritch EZ Method©® of mass manipulation.
[...] McKay wrote an interesting post today on The Cost of Privatizing Social Security?Here’s a quick [...]
This is brilliant. Thanks for doing the math!
richard roe @ 28:
Liberal AND Proud @ 1:
America is a kind of stupid country these days.
The American people elected this guy in 2004.
I haven't been this depressed by a president since Carter.
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