POLITICS - GOP and Social Security

"Granny get your gun!" Rightartia 8/2/2010

Nancy Pelosi on Social Security:

Just five years ago, President Bush and his Republican allies pushed a risky plan to privatize and cut Social Security,” she said. “If they had succeeded, seniors would have lost trillions more in the financial crisis. At the time, Democrats and the American people said ‘no.’ And no one lost a penny in Social Security, even as America’s households lost more than $17 trillion in wealth.

Under Bush, congressional Republicans sought to allow individuals to invest a percentage of their social security benefits in investment instruments. They claimed the rate of return for these vehicles would be greater than keeping benefits in the trust fund.

Republicans never got enough momentum behind their initiative to pass it out of Congress.

A similar proposal has been advanced by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), ranking member of the House Budget Committee. It allows workers to invest their Social Security benefits in personal saving accounts, which would provide a higher yield than the trust fund but also contain greater risk.

“This year, Republicans are charting a course right back to the failed ideas of the past,” Pelosi said. “Again, Democrats and the American people are saying ‘no.’ We are not going back to the exact same agenda of the Bush years.”

Democrats got Social Security benefits after the Great Depression started. The UK experimented with privatization of its version of Social Security and UK pensioners lost half of their pensions.

Don't let pimply faced Wall Streeters or christo-fascists confuse you about Social Security.

Throughout the Federalist Papers both Hamilton and Madison expressed concern to secure both the public good and the rights of private citizens.

However, they were disturbed by the possibility that factions and special interests might misuse the power of government for their own welfare at the expense of the general welfare.

The Social Security Card is evidence that the welfare of the middle class and the poor are essential to a healthy democracy.

Herein lies one of the most misunderstood and misconstrued passages in the Constitution. The general welfare clause was interpreted by the Supreme Court early in the twentieth century represent a virtually unlimited grant of power to the federal government to spend money for any welfare program it desired.

The Biblical Approach to Welfare

Thus, justice has come to refer not to adjudication in the courtroom sense of determining right and wrong, but to a fair distribution of scarce resources.

However, in Scripture the Hebrew word for justice in nearly all cases is “shapat.” The primary sense of this word is to exercise the processes of government.

It means to judge with righteous justice or to determine right and wrong or to rule as God would rule. The same word can also mean "to rule" as in Psalm 96:13 and Genesis 18:25.

Taxation is authorized only for God-ordained functions. Certainly, Jesus would have approved of the FICA tax to help the poor.

What did Jesus say:

Matthew 5:3
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Luke 6:20
And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: "Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God."

Jesus would call Social Security a blessing to the middle calls and the poor. Of course, when Jesus lived, there wasn't any middle class: just the rich and the impoverished.

So if a fast talking Wall Streeter or a Christo-fascist shows up at you door and asks you for you Social security check, go get your rifle, lack and load, and say:

You have to pry this Social Security check from my cold dead hands.

Can you imagine what the status Social Security would be today IF any of the GOP stock market dependent ideas would be law?! Just look at what the current (and on going) depressed economic situation has done to retirement funds (401k, etc).

The GOP dug our economic hole for 8yrs and are STILL trying to blame Obama for not filling the hole in under 2yrs.