Say Anything Blog

This article can also be seen at Taking Back ND!

Senator Conrad had a letter in the Grand Forks Herald Sunday. It was on his plan to create a "Social Security Lockbox." I'm glad that now Senator Conrad is finally admitting that he's been spending our retirement money.

I'm also glad that the Grand Forks Herald is catching up with the program. The Washington Post had an article on this plan which I commented upon way back on September 28th.

I think that Senator Conrad bringing up this flawed Social Security reform is a good thing. Social Security reform seems stalled since hurricane Katrina and Senators Conrad's and Voinovich's flawed plan may get Congress working on reform again.

The reason why Senator Conrad's plan is the wrong one compared to other reform plans lies in one of Senator Conrad's basic character flaws. Senator Conrad does not want anyone to own anything without his permission. Senator Conrad's plan would not allow YOU to keep YOUR money. If you died unmarried at age 64 your money that you've "invested" in Senator Conrad's Social Security scheme would go to the government, 100%. You are also (in Senator Conrad's eyes) too stupid to be trusted making investment decisions with YOUR money.

The guidelines that President Bush has announced would recognize that it's your money and you should own it. Most of the good reform ideas center around this basic tenet. You worked hard to get it, you should control it and you should keep it.

In reading the letter that Senators Conrad and Voinovich wrote I found another of Senator Conrad's character flaws. He just can't take responsibility for his behavior. From the Herald link:

But there's one thing everyone in Washington ought to be able to agree on: The raiding of the Social Security trust funds has to stop.

Nobody made you do it Senator.

So far, we have borrowed more than $1.9 trillion from Social Security to finance the rest of government. That's just wrong.

Was he using the Royal "we"? It doesn't sound like he's really sorry.

At a minimum, this financial shell game has eroded the public's trust in government. There was a time when it was believed that payroll taxes would be used to fund our retirement; gas taxes would be used to pay for highway construction...

Gee Senator nobody thought that our gas taxes would go to pay for a canoe trail or a gift to the financial giant Ingersoll Rand either. Who made you do that? By the way Senator, don't canoes go on water?

Unfortunately, the federal government has consistently failed to meet the public's expectation that these funds are being used for their intended purpose.

Actually I don't blame the entire federal government. I think of one particular Senator who's done more than his share of malfesence.

And, perhaps most importantly, our legislation would force the president (sic) and Congress to face up to the true fiscal condition of the country.

I think it would be great if a certain Senator would face the true fiscal condition of this country. You sure can see the respect this man has for the President.

It is time for the federal government to be honest with American taxpayers.

The time for this is long gone. It is now time for North Dakota to get a someone else to represent the values that are true to North Dakotans.

According to the Bureau of Public Debt when Senator Conrad went to Washington the government owed $387 Billion to the various trust funds such as Social Security and Highway. Today after Senator Conrad has been "representing us" for 18 years that number is $3,370 Billion. Senator Conrad has helped steal Three Trillion Dollars from our Social Security Trust Fund (and other funds).

I thought I'd also link to a previous article of mine showing just how far you can trust Senator Conrad when it comes to reforming Social Security. Senator Conrad was the deciding vote to raise taxes on Social Security benefits. (After you've already paid taxes on them in the first place.) Then this spring he introduced a bill to repeal that tax. But when it came time to vote he voted to keep the tax.