I was just over at Baseline Scenario reading about, get this, "Who's Afraid Of A Falling Dollar?"
The people who wrote it and the Bloomberg piece have to be utter and absolute m*rons! If you were the editor at Bloomberg this looting would stop. America isn't being robbed blind, it was blindfolded with a cloak of stupidity and then robbed.
strabes wrote:
Did you catch the bit in boldface about 'tapping' federal retirement funds for short-term cash flow? Sounds so casual, so innocent, don't it?
Think about it, though. Unlike private pension funds, whose trustees have a fiduciary duty under the ERISA Act to safeguard the interest of beneficiaries, fedgov pension funds are mere slush funds for politicians to grab at will. Under the sordid conflicts of interest which are tolerated within our imperial government, the managers of Social Security and federal retirement funds subserviently hand over their reserves to our insolvent government in ad hoc, 'we'll pay you back when we can afford to' transactions. In a private-sector pension fund, such malfeasance would land them straight in jail.
Sad to say but our government has been hijacked by criminals and con artists that see us as "marks" instead of people. Our enemy is not in the deserts of Iraq or in the mountains of Afghanistan - they are riding limousines in New York and Washington. We are constantly subjected to financial terrorism and false flag operations that make any other terrorist group look like small potatoes.
They stole our social security fund, medicare fund and now they are hitting federal retirement funds. The real absurdity is that while we know the government fleeces us at every opportunity, many want them to take over our health insurance. My prediction is that if the health care bill passes, the government will steal most of the money and we will get what's left in extreme rationing of care.
Health care will help them solve some of the social security and medicare problems since they will be able to allow older folks and those with diagnosed conditions die instead of collect their "entitlements."
Larry
Health care will help them solve some of the social security and medicare problems since they will be able to allow older folks and those with diagnosed conditions die instead of collect their "entitlements."
Larry
Yes -- this is the next great conflict of interest. When your health care provider also pays your pension, there's a huge incentive to terminate some of the 'useless eaters.'
Some will scoff at this notion. But this is a government which thinks nothing about killing thousands of Americans in useless wars overseas. How many would they kill to save their own skins in a solvency crisis?
They (both the Republicans and Democrats) have already proven that they'll hand out trillions at the drop of a hat when 'panic' strikes. The next, bigger panic may require some 'wet work' out in the field. The serfs are getting restless, my Lordship.
Hey machinehead,
Sorry 'bout quoting strabes instead of you (Post #2).
You're post made me mad - when will this stop! You've substantiated in other posts that SS and some other benefits are NOT guaranteed and now the pensions of government workers! Trusts and defined benefits are going to become (SS already has) "pay and ration as you go" public welfare. They should give Americans a choice, for example "do you want to destroy Iraq and then rebuild it under occupation, or do you want at least 50% of your SS?"
I think government pensions may have already been hit. On September 10, 2001 Donald Rumsfeld dropped a bomb shell:
The missing $2.3 trillion is is almost 5 times their annual budget. How do you steal that much....hmmm...maybe you raid government pensions?
Larry
75 percent of Medicare spending is for patients in their last 6mos of life. Yep, there are some savings to be had there by a soulless government bureaucrat in his Washington, DC cubicle.
Most patients wait weeks or months now for appointments. with a good trustworthy doctor. What happens when you keep the same supply of doctors, but add 20 percent more patients? Hmmm. A kid graduates High Scholl in 2010. If he goes straight through college, med school and residency -- the ealiest he gets out into general practice is 2022 or 2026 if he does a surgical subspecialty! The rationing will come by controlling the supply of medical providers. The government will just say it's not our fault, there just aren't enough doctors.
Sorry that's really not what this thread is about. I'll leave now.
I think government pensions may have already been hit. On September 10, 2001 Donald Rumsfeld dropped a bomb shell:
The missing $2.3 trillion is is almost 5 times their annual budget. How do you steal that much....hmmm...maybe you raid government pensions?
Larry
Larry,
The YouTube clip you posted is a case of 'hiding in plain sight.' Never does the news report mention that, as a matter of policy, the Defense Department runs an undocumented, untraceable, unauditable 'black budget.' It is thought to total at least $40 billion a year, perhaps larger. Nowhere is the black budget published. In fact, it's cleared secretly with a handful of top Congressional leaders -- no notes allowed. Same way the Mafia does biz.
As a result, each year the Financial Report of the United States declares that the Defense Department cannot pass an audit. It's not supposed to -- the black budget is broken up and salted throughout all the 'above-ground' accounts, so that none of the income and outgo figures match, and large sums are always 'missing.' They were handed out to defense contractors for secret programs, or to mercenaries, or to guerrillas in Angola, or ... you name it.
If one really absorbs the implications of the black budget, there is no such thing as constitutional government and rule of law. That's a convenient sideshow for the media-fed masses. But it's not where the important work gets done. The Fourteenth 'equal protection' Amendment is a hollow lie -- if you're not an insider, with unlimited privilege, discretion, and exemption from the law, then you're a lowly consumer-depositor. Your papers, please, citizen!
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It's a new fiscal year, and our idiot lush Uncle Sam has maxed out his credit cards again. What's a spendthrift old fart to do? Why, apply for a credit line increase, of course! So, here we go again ... Bloomberg explains:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601074&sid=aWXDnpFProiY
Did you catch the bit in boldface about 'tapping' federal retirement funds for short-term cash flow? Sounds so casual, so innocent, don't it?
Think about it, though. Unlike private pension funds, whose trustees have a fiduciary duty under the ERISA Act to safeguard the interest of beneficiaries, fedgov pension funds are mere slush funds for politicians to grab at will. Under the sordid conflicts of interest which are tolerated within our imperial government, the managers of Social Security and federal retirement funds subserviently hand over their reserves to our insolvent government in ad hoc, 'we'll pay you back when we can afford to' transactions. In a private-sector pension fund, such malfeasance would land them straight in jail.
But then, government is all about granting itself the right to commit acts which are illegal for its subjects -- such as the Federal Reserve's 96-year-long currency counterfeiting operation. When the sovereign itself is dishonest, openly bilking its own pensioners, it is idle to talk of 'reform.' Organized crime is not amenable to reform. Either you end it, or you trust your security to the nebulous notion of 'honour among thieves.' Good luck with that!