Tired Old Trust Fund Bunk
Democratic ads attack Republicans for voting to "raid the Social Security Trust Fund."
That's nonsense.
October 25, 2006
Summary
Democrats get no points for originality on this one, and demerits for lack of honesty. In half a dozen ads they accuse a number of GOP House incumbents of voting repeatedly to "raid the Social Security Trust Fund."
That line was bunk when Republicans used it against Democratic candidates in the past, and it's bunk now. One leading Social Security expert called it "nonsense" as far back as 1999, and that still holds.
The ads refer to votes that don't directly affect Social Security at all. They turn out to be votes in favor of annual budget resolutions setting targets for revenue and appropriations. Current Social Security benefits aren't affected, and the trust fund builds up binding IOUs just the same whether the overall budget is in deficit, balanced or in surplus.
Full Article
FactCheck Debunks Dems Social Security Rant
Discussion in 'Political Debate & Discussion' started by leesw, Oct 25, 2006.
-
There is no Social Security Trust Fund.
There is no money there. None at all. -
Not only the Dems
Scaring Seniors on Social Security
Republicans misleadingly accuse Democratic House candidates of aiming to shrink benefit checks.
October 18, 2006
Summary
Several ads being aired by Republican House candidates try to frighten both old and young away from supporting their Democratic opponents, who, the Republicans claim, will"cut benefits for seniors" and "raise Social Security taxes" on workers.
What the Democrats actually support, however, is the AARP's approach to addressing Social Security's enormous deficit by making "modest adjustments in future benefits" and getting "additional contributions from higher-income workers." Nobody is proposing cuts in current benefit levels.
John Rother, AARP's Director of Legislation and Public Policy, calls the ads "a distortion" of the candidates' positions as well as that of his group and says the spots misuse a survey AARP asked candidates to complete.
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]Some of the ads also repeat the misleading claim that Democratic candidates would "give our Social Security to illegals," which we've addressed before. We know of nobody proposing to pay Social Security to illegal immigrants, not until and unless they legalize their status or become US citizens.
Wow, what a surprise! Politicians' ads are often misleading!
[/FONT] -
The point is that if you make the terms vague enough and avoid certain words, you can make typical liberal tax-and-spend-and-the-heck-with-actually-fixing-anything policy sound like something else.
As far as I'm concerned, the claims about the policy fall well within the vague parameters of the policy. It's the Democrat/AARP policy that is deliberately misleading. No surprise there. -
-
For more on Social Security "trust funds," see http://www.socialsecurity.gov/OACT/ProgData/fundFAQ.html#n1
-
One Senate Dem candidate who has proposed raising SS taxes on "high income families" (without spelling out who those are) is Rep. Harold Ford of Tenn. These families would also forfeit any future right to receive SS benefits in exchange for modest tax breaks on investments (that are largely already available). Ford also wants to raise retirement age to 70.
This appeared in the Knoxville News-Sentinel, and you have to be a subscriber to access it. One piece that had portions is http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/election/article/0,1406,KNS_630_5063742,00.html -
I think the article Daisy posted is from the same site, FactCheck, that Leesw got his from.
http://www.factcheck.org/article452.html -
-
-
[/FONT]