-Caveat Lector-
Walter Williams
Why Congress can't be trusted
THERE ARE ISSUES
about Social Security,
our national Ponzi
scheme, in addition to
its pending
bankruptcy. Read the
Social Security Act,
Section 208 (42
U.S.C. 408),
paragraph 8, which
says, "Whoever
discloses, uses, or
compels the disclosure
of the Social Security number of a person
in violation of the laws of the United
States shall be guilty of a felony and upon
conviction thereof shall be fined under
title 18, United States Code, or imprisoned
for not more than five years, or both."
During the 1930s, many Americans were
concerned that Social Security numbers
would become national identity numbers.
Congress put in paragraph 8 to allay their
fears. My Social Security card issued in
1949 says "Not For Identification
Purposes."
Today, there's little one can do without
giving one's Social Security number,
whether it's getting a driver's license, filing
tax returns, opening a bank or stock
account, getting a job, or even bringing a
baby home from the hospital. That's a
standard practice of Congress. They say
one thing just to get a law passed. Then
they change it to something we would have
never accepted when the law was first
written.
Most Americans think they have a legal
right to the "contributions" they made into
Social Security. They don't. In Flemming
vs. Nestor (1960), Ephram Nestor sued
the federal government, claiming he had a
right to collect Social Security benefits
since he had paid his Social Security
taxes. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that
workers have no legal right to Social
Security, saying, "To engraft upon the
Social Security system a concept of
accrued property rights would deprive it of
the flexibility and boldness in adjustment
to ever changing conditions which it
demands."
That means
Congress can cut
or eliminate Social
Security benefits
anytime it pleases regardless of worker
contributions. That decision was
consistent with the court's earlier opinion
in Helverigh vs. Davis (1937), where the
court pointed out that Social Security was
not an insurance program: "The proceeds
of both the employee and employer taxes
are to be paid into the Treasury like any
other internal revenue generally, and are
not earmarked in any way." That means
Social Security is a tax like any other tax.
Congress can spend as it pleases
regardless of what promises were made
back in 1935 when Social Security began.
To add insult to injury, politicians feed us
lie after lie about the Social Security trust
fund, but they are increasingly being
cornered into admitting the fraud. The
Office of Management and Budget in its
"Budget of United States, Fiscal Year
2000," says: "These (Trust Fund)
balances are available to finance future
benefit payments ... but only in a
bookkeeping sense. ... They do not consist
of real economic assets that can be drawn
down in the future to fund benefits.
Instead, they are claims on the Treasury
that, when redeemed, will have to be
financed by raising taxes, borrowing from
the public, or reducing benefits or other
expenditures." That, ladies and gentlemen,
translates into saying there is no trust
fund.
The White House and many congressmen
say they want to use what they're calling a
budget surplus to save Social Security
rather than give across-the-board tax
cuts. They're lying, and they're going to
get away with it because most Americans
can't or don't bother to think.
What Congress really wants, in their
so-called saving Social Security scheme,
is to keep money coming to Washington, in
the name of Social Security, so they can
spend it on bread and circuses as they've
done in the past --- and Americans are
buying into their ruse.
"To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to
educate a menace to society."
--Theodore Roosevelt
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