The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Keep Plunging the Stake Into the Heart of the Social Security Vampire, McCarthy

Posted on | September 22, 2011 | 2 Comments

by Smitty

The Great Tea Party Awakening continues apace, thanks to this sort of truth telling:

As a great admirer of your work, I’m very surprised by your claim that Social Security’s designers and perpetuators have not attempted to perpetrate a fraud. The program was hatched in fraud. As I pointed out yesterday, FDR pretended it was an insurance program in order to sell it to the public; once Congress enacted it, he then told the courts it was not an insurance program but a tax in order to get it upheld (by justices he had successfully intimidated with a court-packing plan). He later admitted that disingenuously portraying the tax as a contribution for earned insurance benefits was “politics all the way through.” The goal was never to make the economics work. As you correctly point out, they don’t work, and FDR was well aware of that fact. The goal was to make sure, as he put it, that “no damn politician can ever scrap my social security program.” Fostering a sense of public entitlement, he presciently reasoned, would induce politicians to position themselves as defenders of this entitlement — and never you mind the math.

Furthermore, the real objective of Social Security was not to set up a retirement insurance program. It was to lay the foundation for a full-blown entitlement state, complete with socialized healthcare. The original plan included a Medicare component, which was abandoned because FDR realized it would jeopardize passage of social security. (The push on Medicare, as I’ve recounted before, was renewed immediately after passage — although it took 30 years, due to deep opposition from the public and the medical profession.) As Gov. Perry points out in his book, while feigning to address a “crisis,” Social Security (like Obamacare) collected the taxes (“contributions”) for several years (from 1935 to 1942) before any benefits were paid out; and the eligibility age was pegged at 62 even though life expectancy was then 60. The goal was not to ensure a decent retirement for “beneficiaries”; it was to erect — in incremental stealth — an entitlement state that the public would never have supported if Progressives had been forthright about their ambitions. Social security was the foot in the door.

It’s a shame we can’t have this awakening without one mother of an economic hangover.

Also a shame: RINO squishes. The Founding Fathers frown, T-Paw.

Category: Social Security

Comments

2 Responses to “Keep Plunging the Stake Into the Heart of the Social Security Vampire, McCarthy”

  1. Adjoran
    September 22nd, 2011 @ 9:39 pm

    Yes, this certainly seems like a winning policy argument.  It’s what made Howard Phillips a household name, and the Constitution and Libertarian Parties the major players in national politics which they are today.

  2. Social Security: Unconstitutional Ponzi Scheme Born In Fraud « The Camp Of The Saints
    September 22nd, 2011 @ 7:07 pm

    […] a short history lesson on the real original intent of Social Security [tip of the fedora to Admiral Smitty]: As a great admirer of your work, I’m very surprised by your claim that Social Security’s […]