A Forum for Grinches and Ho-Ho-Hoes

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
President Bush clears the way for default:

• Some in our country think that Social Security is a trust fund -- in other words, there's a pile of money being accumulated. That's just simply not true. The money -- payroll taxes going into the Social Security are spent. They're spent on benefits and they're spent on government programs. There is no trust. We're on the ultimate pay-as-you-go system -- what goes in comes out. And so, starting in 2018, what's going in -- what's coming out is greater than what's going in. It says we've got a problem. And we'd better start dealing with it now. The longer we wait, the harder it is to fix the problem.

TPM

When he was trying to get elected for the first time, Bush was all about respecting the integrity of the Social Security Trust Fund:

• "First, unspent surpluses in Washington, D.C. will be spent, you mark my words, you leave money sitting around the table in Washington, Washington politicians will spend it. Now, I believe there's enough money. If you lockbox the payroll taxes, there is $2 trillion to make sure the Social Security system is safe and secure-- $2 trillion. I intend to lockbox the payroll taxes and spend them only on what they're supposed to be spent on, and that's Social Security."
  
  "Governor Bush supports lockboxing $ 2.4 trillion to save and strengthen Social Security."

TPM archives

Now he's pretending it doesn't exist. But Kerry was the flip-flopper.