Everyone, by now, has heard Greenspan's suggestion that we deal with the deficit (both the current one on the general revenue side and the upcoming SS one) by cutting back benefits.
In on sense, it's absolutely true: Social Security payments will, over the next decade, exceed the amount raised by SS taxes. We've known this for 20 years? So why is it upsetting?
It's upsetting because Greenspan is
deliberatly mixing two types of deficits together, and suggesting a
single fix to pay for them. A fix that lies unfairly on the shoulders of the elderly.
Part of the deficit -- the part that hasn't even arrived yet -- is a Social Security issue.
The part we're currently fighting, the part that has Greenspan so worried is a problem on the general revenue side....caused partly by recession, partly by increased spending, but mostly by Bush's tax cuts to the wealthy.
This deficit is actually bigger than it looks, because Social Security is currently running a surplus...a surplus added into the general fund and used to disguise the true size of the deficit.
In essence, Greenspan wants to pay for the tax cuts, Bush's personal wars, and the giant giveaways of Bush's budgets by cutting the benefits of the elderly. That's right: 1.3 trillion in tax cuts, financed by the elderly.
And then, when Social Security stops running surpluses, we'll have to cut their benefits more to cover that deficit.
If Greenspan had just been talking about SS taxes and payments, he would have had a point (although the constant raiding of SS funds is a big issue on it's own). But he wasn't.
That, my friends, is George Bush's America: Subsidizing the rich by cutting benefits to the elderly.
Offhand, I think it'll make an excellent campaign commercial for the Dems...or any 527. Shots of George Bush demanding his tax cuts be made permanent, alternating with Greenspan testifying that the way to fix this is to "cut social security benefits".
I don't think that "George Bush: I want to use your mother's retirement money to reward my cronies" is exactly the campaign theme he wanted to run on. Let's beat him over the head with it.
