THE PRESIDENT: Because the -- all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculate, for example, is on the table; whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those -- changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be -- or closer delivered to what has been promised.
Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of things that cause the -- like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate -- the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those -- if that growth is affected, it will help on the red.

BUSH: HOLDING THREE JOBS 'UNIQUELY AMERICAN'
Tues Feb 8 2005 9:27:01 ET

Last Friday when promoting social security reform with 'regular' citizens in Omaha, Nebraska, President Bush walked into an awkward unscripted moment in which he stated that carrying three jobs at a time is 'uniquely American.'

While talking with audience participants, the president met Mary Mornin, a woman in her late fifties who told the president she was a divorced mother of three, including a 'mentally challenged' son.

The President comforted Mornin on the security of social security stating that 'the promises made will be kept by the government.'

But without prompting Mornin began to elaborate on her life circumstances.

Begin transcript:

MS. MORNIN: That's good, because I work three jobs and I feel like I contribute.

THE PRESIDENT: You work three jobs?

MS. MORNIN: Three jobs, yes.

THE PRESIDENT: Uniquely American, isn't it? I mean, that is fantastic that you're doing that. (Applause.) Get any sleep? (Laughter.)

"I think the private savings accounts ought to come from the payroll taxes people contribute into the Social Security trust. And this is an important issue that I'm going to prioritize right after I'm elected."

"Arbolist... Look up the word. I don't know; Maybe I made it up. Anyway, it's an arbo-tree-ist, somebody who knows about trees."

Imagine the media explosion if a male escort had been discovered operating as a correspondent in the Clinton White House. Imagine that he was paid by an outfit owned by Arkansas Democrats and had been trained in journalism by James Carville. Imagine that this gentleman had been cultivated and called upon by Mike McCurry or Joe Lockhart--or by President Clinton himself. Imagine that this "journalist" had smeared a Republican Presidential candidate and had previously claimed access to classified documents in a national-security scandal.
Then imagine the constant screaming on radio, on television, on Capitol Hill, in the Washington press corps--and listen to the placid mumbling of the "liberal" media now.

"I challenge anybody to show me an example of bias in Fox News Channel."--Rupert Murdoch (Salon, 3/1/01)

Years ago, Republican party chair Rich Bond explained that conservatives' frequent denunciations of "liberal bias" in the media were part of "a strategy" (Washington Post, 8/20/92). Comparing journalists to referees in a sports match, Bond explained: "If you watch any great coach, what they try to do is 'work the refs.' Maybe the ref will cut you a little slack next time."

But when Fox News Channel, Rupert Murdoch's 24-hour cable network, debuted in 1996, a curious thing happened: Instead of denouncing it, conservative politicians and activists lavished praise on the network. "If it hadn't been for Fox, I don't know what I'd have done for the news," Trent Lott gushed after the Florida election recount (Washington Post, 2/5/01). George W. Bush extolled Fox News Channel anchor Tony Snow--a former speechwriter for Bush's father--and his "impressive transition to journalism" in a specially taped April 2001 tribute to Snow's Sunday-morning show on its five-year anniversary (Washington Post, 5/7/01). The right-wing Heritage Foundation had to warn its staffers not to watch so much Fox News on their computers, because it was causing the think tank's system to crash.

“The biggest lie fed the American people by conservative pundits is that the United States is dominated by the ‘liberal media.’ As if Rupert Murdoch, Michael Eisner, General Electric, Time-Warner AOL and Viacom are owned and operated by liberals.

Almost all media that reach a large audience in the United States are owned by for-profit corporations--institutions that by law are obligated to put the profits of their investors ahead of all other considerations. The goal of maximizing profits is often in conflict with the practice of responsible journalism.

Not only are most major media owned by corporations, these companies are becoming larger and fewer in number as the biggest ones absorb their rivals. This concentration of ownership tends to reduce the diversity of media voices and puts great power in the hands of a few companies. As news outlets fall into the hands of large conglomerates with holdings in many industries, conflicts of interest inevitably interfere with newsgathering.

FAIR believes that independent media are essential to a democratic society, and that aggressive antitrust action must be taken to break up monopolistic media conglomerates. At the same time, non-corporate, alternative media outlets need to be promoted by both the government and the non-profit sector.

How did what's coming outta your mouth...get into your head in the first place?

Bush has set off alarm bells among human rights groups with his nominees for the U.N. Ambassador and the top state department post for Latin American affairs, along with his appointment of a convicted Reagan administration official to head a National Security Council office.

While closely linked to the Reagan administration effort to overthrow the democratically elected Sandinistas in Nicaragua, the three controversial appointees - John Negroponte, Otto Reich and Elliott Abrams - all served in the 1980s as instruments of a wider U.S. Policy to train and arm right-wing militaries in Central America.

The insurgency in Iraq continues to baffle the U.S. Military and intelligence communities, and the U.S. Occupation has become a potent recruiting tool for al Qaeda and other terrorist groups, top U.S. National security officials told Congress yesterday.

"Islamic extremists are exploiting the Iraqi conflict to recruit new anti-U.S. Jihadists," CIA Director Porter J. Goss told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. "These jihadists who survive will leave Iraq experienced and focused on acts of urban terrorism," he said. "They represent a potential pool of contacts to build transnational terrorist cells, groups and networks in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and other countries."

Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge met privately with Republican pollsters twice in a 10-day span last spring as he embarked on more than a dozen trips to presidential battleground states, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.
Ridge's get-togethers with Republican strategists Frank Luntz and Bill McInturff during a period the secretary was saying his agency was playing no role in Bush's re-election campaign were revealed in daily appointment calendars obtained by the AP under the Freedom of Information Act.

"We don't do politics in the Department of Homeland Security," Ridge told reporters during the election season.

His aides resisted releasing the calendars for over a year, finally providing them to the AP three days after Ridge left office this month.

The young Nevada man designated to chair the upcoming 2005 Young Republican National Convention in Las Vegas has been accused of embezzling registration fees from around the country to pay off bar tabs, personal loans and credit card debts.
Nevada's national committeeman for Young Republicans filed a criminal complaint Monday with the Reno Police Department alleging Nathan Taylor received more than $25,000 in registration fees and donations through his corporation, YRNC 2005, and spent almost all of it in the past year for personal use.

SOCIAL SECURITY
Alan Greenspan Explains it All

Yesterday, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan appeared before the Senate Banking Committee and – buried beneath an avalanche of cryptic econo-speak – was forced to concede some fundamental truths about President Bush's Social Security privatization scheme. The mainstream media keyed in on Greenspan's tepid support for private accounts if they can be implemented in a fiscally responsible way. (They can't.) But there was a lot more there. The Progress Report wades through the transcript so you don't have to:

PRIVATIZATION WON'T INCREASE NATIONAL SAVINGS: During his testimony, Greenspan said, "the problem essentially is that we have an unprecedented potential increase in the number of people leaving the workforce and going into retirement over the next 25 years" and argued that the key to fulfilling our commitments to future retirees is to increase national savings. Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) asked Greenspan, "Would you also agree…that the private accounts will basically leave national savings unchanged since the government is borrowing money to give to individual citizens to invest in the market?" Greenspan replied, "Yes, I do."

PRIVATIZATION WON'T MAKE SOCIAL SECURITY MORE FINANCIALLY SECURE: Greenspan expressed concern about Social Security's long-term financial stability. Sen. Chuck Shumer (D-NY) asked if "setting up a private account under current conditions, not starting from scratch...does anything to alleviate the problem." Greenspan replied that setting up private accounts "surely doesn't alleviate the current problem."

EXPANDING 401(K) ACCOUNTS ARE A BETTER IDEA: Greenspan also conceded that expanding 401(k) accounts would do more to increase national savings than carving out private accounts from Social Security. Sen. Shumer said expanding "401(k)... Will more [sic] to increase net savings than simply shifting some money from the present system to a so-called private account." Greenspan said, "I'm not disagreeing with you."

BUSH'S RECKLESS FISCAL POLICY WEAKENED SOCIAL SECURITY: Because of the Bush administration's reckless fiscal policies – especially tax cuts for the wealthy – the federal government will rack up another record deficit, expected to exceed $400 billion. Those irresponsible policies make it harder to improve Social Security. Sen. Schumer asked Greenspan if "we'd have a(n) easier time fixing Social Security if our debt went down." Greenspan said, "I think that's fair to say."

TRANSITION COSTS ARE A HUGE CONCERN: Greenspan said yesterday that, in the context of changing Social Security, "I would be very careful about very large increases in debt." Greenspan said, "small increases are not something that would concern me…I would say over a trillion is large." The administration's Social Security privatization scheme is expected to add $2 trillion over the first 10 years.

Guest Viewpoint: Think of Social Security as insurance

By Nicholas Urhausen  

I've spent the past 30 years as a claims representative on the front lines with the Social Security Administration. I speak only for myself, as a citizen and a person who pays Social Security taxes, and not as a representative of the Social Security Administration.

When I began taking claims in 1974, it sometimes took 30 days to process a retirement claim. Quantum leaps in technology often now allow me to process a claim in about 30 minutes. However, there seems to have been little change in people's understanding of the system.

Americans tend to learn about Social Security the same way that they have traditionally learned about sex - in the street. The results, in terms of misconceptions, are similar.

The Social Security system was born in the wake of the Great Depression from a forced marriage between elements of both socialism and capitalism. The genetic result has ideological impurities that both ends of the political spectrum find perpetually irritating.

It is neither a means-tested welfare program nor an individual investment plan. It is a huge, compulsory insurance program with coverage and rates determined by Congress, not by executive whim. Some workers who never marry nor have children and die at a young age never collect a benefit. Some workers have disabled children who are never able to work and who may receive benefits on the workers' account for decades after the worker is disabled, retires or dies.

Social Security's administrative costs have historically been about 1 percent of revenue. There is roughly one field office worker for about every 10,000 Social Security card holders.

But Social Security does not just insure individual workers and their families. Our political leaders often tell us that we have the greatest economic system the world has ever seen. Well, Social Security is intrinsically part of that system. Social Security benefits not only lubricate our economic engine, but also produce enough demand-side wind to keep our financial sails from collapsing in spite of stock market crashes, savings-and-loan debacles, energy price manipulations, insurance rate rigging, dot-com bombs and terrorist attacks.

As to the matter of so-called personal accounts: Social Security benefits are focused on providing income to living beneficiaries so as to satisfy human needs for food, clothing and shelter. If there is a human need to die owning shares of stock index funds, it is not a need that Social Security needs to address, let alone administer. Congress has provided wealth-building opportunities by means of Individual Retirement Accounts and 401(k) plans that should be taken advantage of by those who are able to do so.

I believe that it would be prudent to build a permanent fire wall between our Social Security system and the securities markets. The multinational corporations that typically make up index funds often have a tendency to export jobs and regard labor as a disposable commodity. They should not depend on our Social Security system for capital, and our Social Security system should not depend on them for income.

To the extent that these corporations provide American workers with jobs and pay American taxes, well and good. But we should always avoid placing ourselves in a situation were we would be forced to alter our foreign or national policies to suit their best interests.

Like any insurance situation, if projected claims exceed projected revenues it will be necessary to either increase premiums or reduce coverage. On the revenue side, the cap on earnings on which Social Security taxes are collected could be raised or eliminated. Or it could be left in place and eliminated only on the employer side. On the coverage side, children's benefits could be paid only to the children of deceased or disabled workers and not to those of healthy retirees who happened to have children late in life. The burden could be eased on all workers if Social Security taxes were paid out of pretax rather than after-tax income.

Ironically, Social Security is in better financial shape today than it has ever been during my career. And since the Enron situation, I have heard much less whining about what could have been done if the money had been invested in the stock market. It seems to me that those who make it to retirement age in good health have had more than four decades to accumulate wealth. They should have their children raised and their houses paid for. They should be counting their blessings rather begrudging the semblance of dignity and modicum of income provided by Social Security to those who were less fortunate and their survivors.

But then, human nature is human nature.

Nicholas Urhausen of Eugene is a Social Security claims representative. The views expressed here are his own.

If there is a human need to die owning shares of stock index funds, it is not a need that Social Security needs to address, let alone administer. Congress has provided wealth-building opportunities by means of Individual Retirement Accounts and 401(k) plans that should be taken advantage of by those who are able to do so.

The multinational corporations that typically make up index funds often have a tendency to export jobs and regard labor as a disposable commodity.

And since the Enron situation, I have heard much less whining about what could have been done if the money had been invested in the stock market.

But to get through into thinking I'm a dang fool who believes in fairy tales...