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W Ran it up the Flag-Poll, the People have Saluted

by Conservativity Staff,
Originally Posted: 2/3/2005 4:34:42 PM

The State of the Union message of February 2, 2005 will go down in history for more than the mere fact that a bunch of elitist leftists booed the President when he recited the facts about Social Security.  The CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll came out, and reports that 66% of Americans support the President’s direction on Social Security.  Moreover, a whopping 74% said that our beloved President made a convincing case for the reforms that he has proposed.

"This strong polling result makes the immature whining of the left, those who are terrified of losing yet another means to extort votes via fearmongering, look even more desperate than before."

This strong polling result makes the immature whining of the left, those who are terrified of losing yet another means to extort votes via fearmongering, look even more desperate than before.  However, I am still unconvinced that we have even seen the true measure of the left’s desperate, terrified lust for power.  Social Security Reform is the caustic crucifix; it is the rope of garlic, it is the holy water.  Our beloved president is Van Helsing, and the elite left is the tyrannical vampire of governmental dependence.  Remember this maxim:  The Democratic party offers programs that sound "compassionate," but in reality are control devices, designed to extort votes for their extreme agenda using the fear of loss of the governmental money upon which the voters have been made to depend.

That is why Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic still-shrinking-minority leader, made outlandish claims in his post-speech whine.  He mentioned a "40% benefit cut,"  which is an unmitigated lie.  I still do not know the logic of saying this.  I assume that, because our President’s plan is designed to replace part of the governmental dole with the private retirement accounts, Sen. Reid assumes that the private accounts will yield no money whatsoever, ever.  This is in line with the Senator’s delusion that this plan is a form of "roulette" -- you either win big or lose everything.  Being from Nevada, the Senator apparently spends too much time in casinos and not enough in the real world of capital management.

"The absolute uniform history of investment in mutual funds and bond funds is growth, and at a much faster rate than putting your money in government securities or the local bank."

The absolute uniform history of investment in mutual funds and bond funds is growth, and at a much faster rate than putting your money in government securities or the local bank.  The investment of tens of billions of dollars in the markets, accumulating over time, will create a demand for investments, and will drive up the price of these investments.  For the people invested in the plan, it means more growth than previously seen.  More capital will mean more innovation.  More innovation means more corporate revenues, again causing the price of the stocks to rise, and hence increasing the value of the mutual funds into which the Social Security money is invested.  End result, even higher retirement benefits.

Our President was especially wise to note that you own your own retirement account.  If you die before you retire under the present plan, the government has made off with every single cent that was deducted from your paycheck.  This happened to my mother-in-law, who died in 2003 at age 62, having paid about $100,000 in to Social Security and yet ineligible to collect even the paltry $255 "death benefit"  because all her children were adults.  This money was literally stolen from her and her posterity by the greedy leftists who designed the "you cannot manage your own retirement, leave it to us" tyranny that is the present system.  Her ex-husband, my father-in-law, preceded her to the grave at age 61; his massive contributions went to pay for things like PBS’ Arthur cartoon about lesbians in Vermont.

Our president says that if you die, your retirement account gets passed on to your kids or your heirs.  Even if this money has to go into the heirs’ retirement accounts rather than as a lump sum to the heirs (the latter represents true freedom, but the former is a likely demand from the paternalistic leftists who hate the idea that you could be self-sufficient), it is still a massive benefit.  If I work for the next 25 years and accumulate $1 million in contributions plus earnings, and I die, then my wife and kids get that money, not some bureaucrat in Washington who will spend it on some National Endowment for the Arts project involving religious symbols and excrement, or some study of why monkeys like to eat bananas.

No wonder why the people are thrilled with W’s proposal!  There’s something about this proposal that makes it attractive.  Oh yes, I know.  It’s sensible!  It’s wise!  It’s responsible!  It’s as good as enacted!