http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/ shows/wallstreet/weill/demise.html

(blunter versions available elsewhere online, e.g. counterpunch.org)

Its repeal sure as hell didn’t happen by accident. And everything since then has been one gigantic hit-and-run pile-up. If Congress hadn’t been so busy minutely surveying Monica Lewinsky’s oral skills, all of Social Security might have been swallowed by Wall dot Street in the late nineties.

Your 401k in the hands of banking NGOs that own both sides of Congress is now worth less per hundred Y2k dollars invested than comparable items at any nearby 99¢ store.

Want the same thing to happen to Social Security? If so, keep on backing the same lame bipartisan TBTF horse thieves, Goldman, Citi et al.

If not, bring back Glass-Steagall and interrogate under oath all those who engineered its (hopefully temporary) demise.

why is it…..the liberals refuse the facts?

hmimperson states that republicans are responsible for the massive debt we have now…..yet he makes NO mention of Obama spending more than the last 3 presidents COMBINED in 1 year?
That budget surplus you mention??? That was from a republican congress and a roth ira that had just been activated, increasing one time tax receipts for the govt.
In fact, that 2tril you quote is not even close to accurate. Try Factcheck.org.
And do check your civics books and govt books from high school. the president doesnt set the spending, congress does. the president can only veto spending bills.
but this president has no issue with spending.
if only he would spend it to get us out of the recession we are in, and the democrats share more than half the blame for.
please note…that almost unanimous voting for repeal of glass steagle came from congress and president clinton signed the repeal.
again….liberals should study the facts more, and learn about the issues before spouting off. it just makes them look ignorant.

Anyone who’s still wasting their time spouting Conservative Nonsense should realize how stupid they look now that the consequences of their beloved “Laissez Faire” have struck America down. Simple minded politics for simple minded people. If Conservatism was for real: we’d have all our problems solved and there would be no other political philosophies. Try a little independent – clear – thinking.
- Posted by 4Truth ********

I would agree…”4truth” because in this article, you exercised No independent thinking.
First off…to answer your issues raised…..Congress (both repubs and democrats) voted to repeal the glass/steagle act, widely viewed as the reason for this mess and former President Bill Clinton signed the documents to repeal this law.

Former President G.W. Bush’s move to privatize SS would have resulted in moving a portion of retirees monies into Bond funds, and Bond programs, In effect the safest monetary investment you can make with a solid yield over time. This would have also allowed for the ‘transfer of wealth’ in so that when a person dies, they can/and should “will” the remainder of their monies to their family instead of allowing the US govt to keep it.

4truth, you spout a lot of jargon, “bush this and bush that” but you are VERY limited on the actual facts of the matter….but then again, i notice that more and more with liberals.

“There is no Social Security Trust Fund. There are no SS reserves to invest. And though it was sold as “your money”, it’s NOT there.”

More Tea Party drivel. It IS there, in the form of Special Treasury Securities, backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. The only thing that makes them “Special” is that they are not traded on exchanges. Moreoever, if nothing is done, when the Trust Fund is exhausted in about 30 years, current Social Security receipts will equal about 76% of projected expenditures. So the worst case of a 24% haircut in SS benefits 30 years from now, while unpleasant, is hardly Armageddon.

Past SS surpluses had to be invested in SOMETHING. What did you expect, they would be placed under the world’s biggest mattress? And what would you suggest as a SAFER investment than U.S. Treasury securities?

Do you believe U.S. Treasury Securities are worthless? If so, better stock up on gold and ammo.

Who put us on the road to ruin?

Ans: Reagan, who tripled the national debt, whose tax cuts never paid for themselves as advertised.

Bush I had only 4 years, so the best he could do was increase the national debt by 50%. Bush II, having a full 8 years, doubled it – and this during a time hailed by Conservative economists such as Grover Norquist and Larry Kudlow as a time of unmatched prosperity and “the Goldilocks economy.” During times of prosperity, individuals and countries are supposed to save, to be able to spend more than what comes in during difficult times. But instead, we had an administration that actually believed and stated “deficits don’t matter.” So Republicans believe deficits don’t matter – unless we have a Democratic President, coming into the mess his predecessor left.

The failed Republican policies of the last 30 years, tax cuts for the rich and deregulation, interrupted only by the 8 Clinton years, which left us with a project $2Trillion surplus, have brought to the brink. Bush cut funding to the SEC, sharply reducing the amount of money spent on enforcement, together with Greenspan’s interest rate bubble, took us to brink of Great Depression II. The economy lost 750,000 jobs in January 2009, and the Dow was closing in on its low of 6600 (made within 6 weeks of inauguration). Since then it has risen almost 70%. As Stephen Colbert would say, “the market has spoken” on the effectiveness of Obama’s economic policies.

Just as Republicans still curse FDR (whose FDIC was the only thing standing between us and a run on every bank in the country in the fall of 2008), now they blame Obama for the mess Bush and his two Republican predessors made of the national debt.

Republicans are consistent about one thing only – their hypocrisy.

And these are the people (including Jeopardy champion Pethokukis, a regular guest on the Kudlow Report) we should look to for advice? I used to listen to the Kudlow Report regularly on XM during my long commute in 2007, and I NEVER remember Pethokukis disagreeing with Kudlow about the “goldilocks economy,” just months before the world began to fall apart.

Social Security is President Roosevelt’s gift to us in 2010 during this Second Depression (it was not created to help him during the First Depression); it’s to provide SECURITY in our old age that might not be there in our PRIVATE plans should a market downturn occur or should citizens fail to put money aside.