From the Wall Street Journal

It's not a lie but it is how to do it:

"Give me a grain of truth and I will mix it up with a great mass of
falsehood so that no chemist will ever be able to separate them."

John Wilkes to Adam Smith

It's the White House

False

The Patriot Act Has Helped Prosecutors Take Legal Action Against Terrorist Operatives And Their Supporters. Since September 11th, the United States has charged over 400 suspected terrorists, and more than half of those charged have already been convicted.

White House Fact Sheet: The Patriot Act Helps Keep America Safe
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/06/20050609.html


Truth

An analysis of the Justice Department's list of terrorism prosecutions by The Washington Post shows that 39 people -- not 200 -- have been convicted of crimes related to terrorism or national security.

Most of the others were convicted of relatively minor crimes such as making false statements and violating immigration law -- and had nothing to do with terrorism, the analysis shows. Overall, the median sentence was just 11 months.

Few Terror Convictions in Cases Since 9/11, Less Than Half of the People Charged Had Demonstrated Connections to Terror Groups
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/11/AR2005061100381_pf.html

Is Bush Running a Con?

If it's a worthless IOU,
then this man is a CON MAN!

President examines Bonds Issued to Social Security System He Does Not Intend to Repay.
Can Anyone Say Fraud?

Social Insecurity

Lie
And best of all, the money in the account is yours, and the government can never take it away.
President George W Bush to a joint session of Congress, February 2, 2005

Truth
Under the White House Social Security plan, detailed by a senior administration official before President Bush's State of the Union address, workers who opt to divert some of their payroll taxes into individual accounts would ultimately get to keep only the investment returns that exceed the rate of return that the money would have accrued in the traditional system.

Under the proposal, workers could invest as much as 4 percent of their wages subject to Social Security taxation in a limited assortment of stock, bond and mixed-investment funds. But the government would keep and administer that money. Upon retirement, workers would then be given any money that exceeded inflation-adjusted gains over 3 percent.

That money would augment a guaranteed Social Security benefit that would be reduced by a still-undetermined amount from the currently promised benefit.

In effect, the accounts would work more like a loan from the government, to be paid back upon retirement at an inflation-adjusted 3 percent interest rate -- the interest the money would have earned if it had been invested in Treasury bonds, said Peter R. Orszag, a Social Security analyst at the Brookings Institution and a former Clinton White House economist. "It's not a nest egg. It's a loan."

If a worker sets aside $1,000 a year for 40 years, and earns 4 percent annually on investments, the account would grow to $99,800 in today's dollars, but the government would keep $78,700 -- or about 80 percent of the account. The remainder, $21,100, would be the worker's.
With a 4.6 percent average gain over inflation, the government keeps more than 70 percent. With the CBO's 3.3 percent rate, the worker is left with nothing but the guaranteed benefit.
If instead, workers decide to stay in the traditional system, they would receive the benefit that Social Security could pay out of payroll taxes still flowing into the system, the official said.

The system would ultimately look something like a proposal made by President Bill Clinton, in which the government would have invested Social Security taxes in the stock market.

That idea was criticized by conservatives. The government is choosing the stocks and bonds to be bought with Social Security money, said Jason Furman, a former Clinton administration economist. Individuals would get a limited choice, and the government would still keep most of the returns.

"They hope people will think they will take on these accounts and after 40 years, they'll have this huge windfall, but that won't happen," said Dean Baker, co-director of the liberal Center for Economic and Policy Research. "I think they're trying to confuse people."

Stephen Moore, a conservative supporter of Bush's Social Security effort, said the mechanism would undermine the president's notion of an "ownership society."

"Participants Would Forfeit Part of Accounts' Profits,"Washington Post, February 3, 2005

Truth Takes a Dive



Q Mr. President, in the debate over Dr. Rice's confirmation, Democrats came right out and accused you and the administration of lying in the run-up to the war in Iraq.... No reaction to the lying? No reaction? (Laughter.)


THE PRESIDENT: Is that your question? The answer is, no.
President Holds Press Conference, January 26, 2005

President Bush Lies

As a matter of fact, by the time today's workers who are in their mid-20s begin to retire, the system will be bankrupt. So if you're 20 years old, in your mid-20s, and you're beginning to work, I want you to think about a Social Security system that will be flat bust, bankrupt.
George W Bush, President Participates in Conversation on Social Security Reform, Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, Washington, D.C., January 12, 2005

Truth

According the the Social Security Trustees, they will be able to pay 73% of the benefits in 2042 from current tax revenue and could pay full benefits if we raise the payroll tax from its current rate (12.4% combined employee and employer on the first $87,900 of income) to 14.29%:

Projected OASDI tax income will be sufficient to finance only 73 percent of scheduled annual benefits by 2042, when the combined OASDI trust fund is projected to be exhausted.
Status of the Social Security and Medicare Programs, A SUMMARY OF THE 2004 ANNUAL REPORTS, Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees

Assuming the Trustees' intermediate assumptions are realized, the deficit of 1.89 percent of payroll indicates that financial adequacy of the program for the next 75 years could be restored if the Social Security payroll tax were immediately and permanently increased from its current level of 12.4 percent (combined employee-employer shares) to 14.29 percent.
2004 OASDI Trustees Report, IV. ACTUARIAL ESTIMATES, B. LONG-RANGE ESTIMATES

"Contrary to reports, I consider the Geneva Conventions neither obsolete nor quaint."

Alberto Gonzales, Senate Judiciary Committee Confirmation Hearing, January 6, 2005
Click here to read testimony at the NY Times -- free registration required

"In my judgment, this new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions."

Alberto Gonzales, Memorandum for the President, January 25, 2002
Click here to see a pdf file of the memorandum

Debunking the Social Security Lie

Paul Krugman will be writing a series of opinion pieces in the New York Times about Social Security privatized. I strongly suggest they be read and passed around. Although it appears on the opinion page, it is full of factual information.


Click Here to Link to the First Krugman Article