Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Rand Paul's Hero Ronnie Reagan

The theft started long before Reagan. In fact, it started right at the launch of SS, but Rand Paul's hero did nothing to stop it.


Here's Murray Rothbard on Alan Greenspan, Reagan and social security:
We should also say a word about another of Ronnie’s great "libertarian" accomplishments. In the late 1970’s, it became obvious even to the man in the street that the Social Security System was bankrupt, kaput. For the first time in fifty years there was an excellent chance to get rid of the biggest single racket that acts as a gigantic Ponzi scheme to fleece the American taxpayer. Instead, Reagan brought in the famed "Randian libertarian" Alan Greenspan, who served as head of a bipartisan commission, performing the miracle of "saving Social Security" and the masses have rested content with the system ever since. How did he "save" it? By raising taxes (oops "premiums"), of course; by that route, the government can "save" any program. (Bipartisan: both parties acting in concert to put both of their hands in your pocket.)

The way Reagan-Greenspan saved Social Security is a superb paradigm of Reagan’s historical function in all areas of his realm; he acted to bail out statism and to co-opt and defuse any libertarian or quasi-libertarian opposition. The method worked brilliantly, for Social Security and other programs.

(Graphic via Blue Texas)

5 comments:

  1. IF they are stealing the money and not paying back what they borrowed, then the national debt is 12.3 trillion dollars,not 17.2 trillion. Unfortunately, the people who claim the money is stolen always say the national debt is 17.2 trillion. Are they liars? OR don't they understand what they are claiming?

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  2. All one has to do in pondering the intent of the government in creating the Social Security scam is consider two key points:

    1. The retirement age of SS when established in 1935 was 62.

    2. The average lifespan of an American in 1935 was 61.7 years.

    lol...that tells you everything you need to know about why it was started.

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  3. You're correct, Wenzel. The spending of all revenues exceeding outflows from social security has always been spent since it became law. It's always been that way. All that ever changed is how SS is accounted (on- budget vs off-budget). These changes were made in 1969 and 1990 respectively. What Reagan did was begin taxing 50% of SS benefits as income if total income fell above certain thresholds, but that occurred in 1984, not 1985.

    I hate when people point to particular administrations and say, "see, they started stealing our social security", when the fact is that they're been spending the surplus funds the entire time. That was the entire purpose of SS, it's a ponzi scheme whose primary purpose is to allow the state to spend more now, and pay later with further debased money (i.e. pay less later).

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  4. According to the NYT, Rand Paul called his dad Ron his hero. I guess this is another thing they're confused about.

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