Lockbox

Not long ago I read an article that said the overwhelming majority (I believe it was 85%) of American voters did not know how their Social Security taxes were actually being used. Some, amazingly, still thought that the money when into some sort of investment account that the government managed. Others knew that there was no investment account, but didn’t know what actually did happen. This situation is so frustrating, as our elected representatives have been perpetrating a gigantic fraud on the citizens of this country — one that dwarves any crime ever prosecuted — and they’ve been doing it continuously for decades. Every single citizen is being cheated out of a huge amount of money, and yet very few people even complain about it, much less do the one thing that would change this behavior: throw the bums out of office.

From Bonnie and Clyde Budgeteers ($WSJ):

Remember when Al Gore pledged to create a “lockbox” to protect Social Security trust fund surpluses from the annual Congressional spending raid? Well last week, while voting to raise the federal-debt ceiling to $8.96 trillion, Senators had a chance to terminate this notorious money-laundering scheme.

And guess what? Every Democrat in the Senate joined with eight Republicans to kill an amendment by GOP Senators Jim DeMint and Mike Crapo that would have stopped the Bonnie and Clyde budgeting. The vote was 53-46, and on the list of those voting to continue the Social Security raid is every potential 2008 Democratic Presidential aspirant in the Senate, including Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and Joe Biden. Worse, the list also includes Republicans Conrad Burns (Montana), Jim Talent (Missouri) and Gordon Smith (Oregon), who are running for re-election this year.

I hope my readers are better informed that the average American. But just in case this is news to you, let me describe how it works. Imagine that your 'Social Security' taxes (including the matching taxes that your employer pays) were being paid to a private investment firm instead of the U.S. Treasury. Every payday another dollop of your money goes into that account. Now what you’d expect from that private firm is that your money would be wisely invested, probably in a mix of investments that returned a modest but safe appreciation. But what if that firm didn’t bother investing at all? What if…they just took your money and did whatever they wanted to with it, leaving an IOU in your account? And then, whenever they feel like it, they pay the IOU with no interest or appreciation at all. Would you be content with this outcome?

I think not.

But that’s exactly what your elected representatives are doing to you, year in and year out.

Why are these criminals still in office? Forget the fact that (for the most part) their party affiliation is Democrat. I cannot understand how any voter would knowingly support someone who stole their retirement. There only two explanations I can conceive of: either American voters are incredibly stupid and gullible, or they don’t know. The latter explanation seems more plausible to me (though I could be wrong). Certainly it’s true that the lamestream media has not done a stellar job reporting this issue (and in fact, some editorials actually support the practice) — but they have reported it. So voters must be choosing not to become informed…

When I have a down day, facts like this can make me despair for the future of our democracy. If an electorate can’t be bothered to learn enough to keep themselves from being victimized by their elected representatives, is there hope for democracy succeeding? If most voters are willing to re-elect self-serving criminals, what kind of government can I look forward to?

Fortunately for my sanity, I have very few down days…