DeFazio on the Latest Bush Atrocity

On the House floor:

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, well, the President was on the road again today with yet another tightly controlled scripted, so-called town hall, before a carefully screened, invitation audience to tout to his plan to privatize Social Security.

Now, that is not unusual; in fact, the scripted town halls are all so similar that they can save the taxpayers a lot of money if he just stayed at Camp David or Crawford, Texas, and they just replayed the recordings of his earlier scripted, rehearsed town halls.

But the President did say today something extraordinary, in Parkersburg, West Virginia, and suggested something unconscionable. The President said, ``There is no trust fund.'' And then he went on to suggest that our Nation might not honor its debt to Social Security. This is what the President said does not exist.

Let me read from this. This is a Social Security Trust Fund bond, considered the best investments in the world, U.S. Treasury Bond. This is the most privileged of Treasury bonds issued to Social Security, redeemable at any time at full face value, unlike any other bond that they issue. These are the most privileged of their bonds. The President says it is nothing but an IOU. Well, here is what it says: This bond is incontestable in the hands of the Federal Old Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund. The bond is supported by the full faith and credit of the United States. And the United States is pledged to the payment of the bond with respect to both principal and interest…

This is an extraordinary and reckless statement for the elected President of the United States to make…

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(Imagine if Bush had said it just a bit differently, as below.)

Bush Panics Nation

Washington (EFX) -- Yesterday President Bush caused massive financial panic which led to bank defaults around the nation when he informed the American public of a previously unknown feature of the American banking system:

"A lot of people in America think there is a vault -- and banks take the money you deposit then hold it for you until you want it back and then they give it back to you," Bush said later in a speech at the University of West Virginia at Parkersburg. "But that's not the way it works. There is no money in the vault, just IOUs that I saw firsthand."

While President Bush's remarks were not entirely correct -- there is in fact some money in the vaults of banks -- it is true that most of the deposits have in fact been spent or loaned to other people. While most people imagine that their savings account contains real money, it is in fact just an IOU.

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