Social Security: The Attempt to Kill It

Book Description The current Social Security "crisis" has been 22 years in the making. It is the handiwork of the presidents and members of Congress who served during that period, as well as the efforts to abolish Social Security by the Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and many other individuals and organizations." The actual solvency problem is not with the Social Security program. It is with the government's total budget. The 1983 Social Security Amendments raised payroll taxes by enough to fund both the retirement of the generation preceding the baby boomers and the baby boomers themselves. This tax increase generated $1.7 trillion in Social Security surplus between 1984 and 2005, and it will generate another $2 trillion between 2005 and 2017. This surplus money was supposed to be saved and invested to build up a large reserve for funding the retirement of the baby boomers. The problem is that the government did not save and invest the Social Security surplus as it was supposed to do. Instead, it "borrowed" and spent (embezzled) every dollar of the Social Security surplus, replacing the money with worthless non-marketable special issue government IOUs. In 1983, the same year that Social Security was "fixed," members of the Cato Institute and the Heritage Foundation drew up a long-term plan for privatizing Social Security. They published their plan, entitled "Achieving A Leninist Strategy" in the Fall 1983 issue of Cato Journal. This plan served as the foundation upon which a powerful movement to destroy the current Social Security system and replace it with private accounts was built over the years. The goal was to have a privatization plan waiting in the wings when the next Social Security crisis came along. Apparently the libertarians became impatient waiting for a true crisis to come and convinced President Bush to create an artificial crisis in the minds of the American public. Bush has done a good job of casting doubts on the long-term solvency of Social Security as part of the plan to privatize the program. This plot to destroy Social Security, that was initially created by people at the Cato Institute and the Heritage Foundation, now includes the participation of the President of the United States, many members of Congress, and many other conservative organizations. Dr. Allen W. Smith, author of the explosive book, "The Looting of Social Security," has written an even more explosive bombshell. This book exposes the Social Security accounting fraud, that makes Enron pale by comparison, and a plot to dismantle Social Security which was modeled after Lenin's struggle to overthrow capitalism. This is a must read for anyone who cares about the future of Social Security.--This text refers to the Paperback edition. About the Author Allen W. Smith has been battling economic illiteracy for nearly 30 years. His first book, Understanding Inflation and Unemployment, became an alternate selection of Fortune Book Club when it was published in 1976. His high school textbook, Understanding Economics, was published ten years later by Random House and was used by more than 600 schools in 48 states. Dr. Smith's other previous books include The Looting of Social Security: How The Government Is Draining America's Retirement Account (2004), Demystifying Economics: The Book that Makes Economics Accessible to Everyone (2000), and The Alleged Budget Surplus, Social Security, & Voodoo Economics (2000) Dr. Smith, who is Professor Emeritus, Eastern Illinois University, holds a Ph,D. .degree in economics from Indiana University. Smith, who currently resides in Winter Haven, Florida, has appeared on CNBC, CNN, CNNfn, and than 150 radio talk shows. He is available as a public speaker.--