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LIES, LIES, MORE DAMN LIES
“You know our job in Washington is to tackle problems when we see them; not to pass them on to future congresses, future presidents, and future generations. I want to thank the members of Congress for taking on this very difficult issue. I appreciate for their hard work. Medicare has worked for many people. It got a little old, it got a little tired. It needed to be changed. We changed it, and the system is better for it.”
–President George W. Bush, November 25, 2003 — Commenting on the $400+ Billion Medicare Reform Act
Congress gave final approval on Tuesday to the Medicare Reform Bill, which promises the biggest changes in Medicare since its creation in 1965.
The bill, officially estimated to cost $400 billion over 10 years, would remake Medicare. It offers drug benefits to 40 million elderly and disabled people, while giving insurance companies and private health plans a huge ‘new role’ in the Medicare program. The new law offers insurance companies up to $12 billion in subsidies as an attraction to offer Medicare insurance and places restrictions on the importation of drugs. Nothing more than blatant political giveaways to the insurance and drug industries.
Some conservative Republican senators like Judd Gregg of New Hampshire and Don Nickles of Oklahoma voted against the bill. They predicted that the costs would explode and said the burden would fall on workers and taxpayers.
“This is the largest tax increase that one generation has put on another generation in the history of this country,” said Mr. Gregg, who asserted that the drug benefit had been contrived to “get us through the next election.”
The $400 billion bill ranks as the shrewdest transfer of wealth from working Americans to the super-rich yet pulled off by the sitting administration.
Some experts see a danger that the elderly could revolt against the program just as they did against the 1988 effort to add coverage against catastrophic medical expenses to Medicare.
Between 10,000 and 15,000 members of the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) quit over its endorsement of the Medicare bill, AARP head William Novelli said Wednesday, Novemeber 26.
Senior citizens ripped up or burned their AARP membership cards and flooded the lobbying group’s Internet message board with complaints in what could be the biggest revolt in its ranks since the 1980s.
Many feel the Republican-backed Medicare Law will harm senior citizens, and they say the AARP – the nation’s most influential retiree lobby, with 35 million members – sold them out.
See a Chart of Who Wins and Who Loses in the Medicare Reform Bill
“To achieve these great national objectives — to win the war, protect the homeland and revitalize our economy — our budget will run a deficit that will be small and short-term…“
–President George W. Bush, State of the Union, January 29, 2002
“Our administration is concerned about deficits, and the way they deal with deficits is you want to control spending. And I hope Congress lives up to their words. When they talk about deficits, they can join us in making sure we don’t overspend. They can join us and make sure that the appropriations process is focused on those issues that — those items that are absolutely necessary to the American people. I’m pleased that members of the Congress are talking about deficits. It means they understand their obligations not to overspend the people’s money.”
–President George W. Bush, Jan. 6, 2003.
Between 2002 and 2011, the government will have racked up over $4 trillion in deficits, House Budget Committee Democratic aides project. During the same time, Bush-era tax cuts and the interest they add to government debt will total $4.2 trillion.
The White House Office of Management and Budget officially announced the 2003 budget deficit was $555 Billion, a new record, up sharply from $158 billion in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2002.
The reported budget deficit (conveniently) DOES NOT INCLUDE:
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$150 Billion taken out of the Social Security Trust Fund to pay non-social security related budget items, |
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The cost of the War in Iraq (estimated at $1 Billion per day; Estimated at between $100 Billion to $200 Billion), or approximately $2,500 per household. |
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The cost of occupation of Iraq = $3.9 Billion per month, according to Defense Secretary Rumsfeld. It is estimated that the U.S. could occupy Iraq for 4 years or more sending the occupation total to $187 Billion (this is a conservative estimate given the fact that the U.S still has troops in Bosnia 7 years later.) This number is over and above the fighting costs. |
For the next two years the federal budget deficits are estimated to be $566 billion to $644 billion each year, even without the additional costs for the occupation of Iraq. These deficits will easily increase the national debt to more than $8.2 trillion, or $28,000 for every man, woman, and child in the U.S.
“For decades we have piled deficit upon deficit, mortgaging our future and our children’s future for the temporary convenience of the present. To continue this long trend is to guarantee tremendous social, cultural, political and economic upheavalsâ€Â.
— Ronald Reagan, 1981
This quote was made at the beginning of Reagan’s first term. Reagan then proceeded to quadruple the national debt from $800 Billion to $3.2 Trillion.
“All in all, I think we’ve hit the jackpotâ€Â
— Ronald Reagan, as he signed the big S&L deregulation bill on October 15, 1982.
Reagan’s deregulation of the Savings & Loan industry paved the wave for the Great Savings & Loan Swindle, currently the biggest and most expensive financial debacle in American history.
The result was an unprecedented government bailout of an estimated 2,000 failed savings & loan banks, with an estimated cost of over a Trillion dollars to American taxpayers (according to a team of economists from Stanford who have examined the numbers.) To this day, most Americans do not know much about the extent or causes of the fraud, and do not know the total cost of the bailout.
“For the first time in three decades, the budget is balanced. From a deficit of $290 billion in 1992, we had a surplus of $70 billion last year. We are on course for budget surpluses for the next 25 years. “–President William Jefferson Clinton, State of the Union Adress, 1999.
“We should take advantage of this historic opportunity to use the benefits of debt reduction to extend the life of Social Security and Medicare and pay off the entire national debt by 2013 for the first time since Andrew Jackson was president.”
–President William Jefferson Clinton, May 1, 2000.
The national debt – the total amount of money the government owes – went up each year during those supposed Clinton “surpluses.” Those surpluses never existed. It was all a figment of magical bookkeeping.
According to the Bureau of the Public Debt, the total public debt at the end of fiscal 2000 was about $5.7 trillion, up $261 billion over the same three-year period during which President Clinton claimed it fell by $360 billion.
During the Clinton Presidency, debt held by the public declined by $385 billion, but the government’s internal debt (various trust funds, including Social Security), increased by about $645 billion.
Of that amount, about $158 billion is accrued interest that appears in the Social Security trust fund in the form of new Treasury obligations. The result? Government debt increased by $261 billion.
A full report that details the imbalances in the U.S. economy is available on our web-site at http://www.techtrading.com/big_picture_EN.pdf
The report includes dozens of charts, quotes, and facts about the U.S. Economy. It is a must read for serious investors and concerned citizens.
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