Since everyone
else
on the AmSpecBlog is writing about Social Security, I might
as well too.
FDR's proudest accomplishment, the national Ponzi scheme known as
Social Security, is significantly
closer to collapse than it was last year - and liberal groups
have a lot to do with this fact, but more on that in a moment.
The old age entitlement program reported that program costs will
exceed tax revenues in 2016, one year sooner than projected in
last year's report. The Old-Age and Survivors, and Disability
Insurance (OASDI) Trust Funds will be exhausted in 2037, four
years sooner than projected last year. "Over the 75-year period,
the Trust Funds would require additional revenue equivalent to
$5.3 trillion in today's dollars to pay all scheduled benefits,"
according to the program's board of trustees.
"The worsening of the long-range outlook for the Social Security
program is due primarily to the recent economic downturn and
faster reductions in mortality than previously assumed," said the
trustees.
But the trustees left out an important fact: liberal activism has
helped to bring Social Security to the brink.
In 2005 as the defeat of President George W. Bush's campaign to
reform Social Security, the so-called third rail of American
politics, drew nearer, liberal groups savored their approaching
victory. "We're putting the power back into the third rail,"
gloated Toby Chauduri, a spokesman for the Campaign for America's
Future.
Social Security has not been reformed because politicians lack
the political will to take action. And why do they lack the will
to act? In part because they have been urged not to take action
by left-wing groups opposed to putting Social Security on a sound
financial footing.
These groups were effective both in keeping Democratic lawmakers
in line and in scaring the bejeezus out of Republican lawmakers
sympathetic to Social Security reform.
Some of the key
liberal groups that have fought Social Security
reform tooth and nail are the AFL-CIO, AARP, AFSCME,
Campaign for America's Future (CAF), CAF affiliate Institute for
America's Future, International Brotherhood of Teamsters,
MoveOn.org and USAction.
Remember that during the Bush era fight in Congress, the AFL-CIO,
mindful that many investment firms managed labor-controlled
pension fund assets, suddenly decided that protecting Social
Security was Big Labor's "fiduciary duty."
The New York City Employees' Retirement System wrote threatening
letters to investment houses warning that if they backed major
changes to the program, labor would take their position into
consideration when deciding whether the firms would continue to
manage the assets of union pension funds. Translation: Support
Social Security reform and lose some huge clients. Labor
officials also launched a PR offensive against the firms in the
media to make sure they didn't back reform.
So, never forget how Social Security got to where it is now.
