U.S. Loots Social Security to Wage Wars

By Sherwood Ross - BlacklistedNews.com

“As long as the $1.2-trillion annual budget for the military-security complex is off limits (to cutting), nothing can be done about the US budget deficit except to renege on obligations to the elderly, confiscate private assets or print enough money to inflate away all debts,” Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Treasury Secretary under President Reagan warns.

In an article titled “Stealing from Social Security to Pay for Wars and Bailouts,” published in the April issue of the “Rock Creek Free Press” of Washington, D.C., Roberts says that Republicans are calling Social Security and Medicare “entitlements”---making them sound like welfare---when, in fact, workers over their lifetimes have contributed 15 percent of all their earnings to the payroll tax that funds these benefits and have every right to them.

And far from Social Security being in the red, between 1984 and 2009, Roberts writes, “the American people contributed $2-trillion...more to Social Security and Medicare in payroll taxes than was paid out in benefits” but “the government stole” that sum to fund wars and pork-barrel projects!

What's more, under one realistic estimate, far from crashing into the red, “Social Security(OASDI) will have produced surplus revenues of $31.6-trillion by 2085, Roberts says.

Americans, apparently, are unaware of how the federal government's illegal, foreign wars sap the economy and rob every household. The Iraq war cost alone is 20 percent of the size of last year's entire U.S. economy. Instead of investing that sum at home, “which would have produced income and jobs growth and solvency for state and local governments, the US government wasted the equivalent of 20% of the economy in 2010 in blowing up infrastructure and people in foreign lands,” Roberts says.

“The US government spent a huge sum of money committing war crimes, while millions of Americans were thrown out of their jobs and foreclosed out of their homes,” he added. Viewed another way, the Pentagon continues to expand and put people to work to modernize its 700-800 bases abroad in order to dominate every corner of the globe while public works and public employment in America are going into the toilet.

“When short-term and long-term discouraged workers are added ...the US has an unemployment rate of 22%,” Robert says. A country with that large a percentage out of work “has a shrunken tax base and feeble consumer purchasing power.”

The U.S. media, he claims, is only reporting one-third of the real cost of the wars, leaving out the sums needed for “lifelong care for the wounded and maimed, the cost of lifelong military pensions of those who fought in the wars, the replacement costs of the destroyed equipment, the opportunity cost of the resources wasted in war, and other costs.”

President Obama's budget, if passed, doesn't reduce the deficit over the next 10 years by enough to cover the projected deficit in the fiscal year 2012 budget alone, the financial authority writes. “Indeed, the deficits are likely to be substantially larger than forecast,” as the military-industrial complex “is more powerful than ever and shows no inclination to halt the wars for US hegemony,” Roberts says.#

(Sherwood Ross heads a public relations firm "for good causes" and also runs the Anti-War News Service. Reach him at sherwoodross10@gmail.com)

 

Read more here:   http://www.blacklistednews.com/?news_id=13437

Views: 49

Comment

You need to be a member of 12160 Social Network to add comments!

Join 12160 Social Network

"Destroying the New World Order"

TOP CONTENT THIS WEEK

THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING THE SITE!

mobile page

12160.info/m

12160 Administrators

 

Latest Activity

cheeki kea commented on Doc Vega's blog post Department of Justice Crumbling Under the Pending Occupation by the Trump Administration!
"And it's about time we had some honest and balanced action. Here's what AI images dreamed…"
14 hours ago
Doc Vega posted blog posts
17 hours ago
Doc Vega posted a photo

main-qimg-6a080d2afce4004157ca1346e8c686c8

Two sodomites frolicking under the sheets as the nation burns!
21 hours ago
cheeki kea posted a video

Neil Oliver STUNNED as Dutch Official Reveals Covid-19 Was 'MILITARY Operation' in SHOCK Admission

Neil Oliver reacts after a top Dutch government official has admitted 'Covid' was a military operation.#gbnews #uknews #covid #coronavirus #covid19 Keep up t...
yesterday
tjdavis posted blog posts
Sunday
tjdavis commented on tjdavis's video
Sunday
tjdavis posted videos
Sunday
tjdavis posted photos
Sunday
Doc Vega posted blog posts
Saturday
Doc Vega commented on Doc Vega's blog post What Will happen When Robot Brides Replace Human Marriage?
"Less Prone thanks for your support Buddy! "
Friday
Less Prone favorited tjdavis's video
Thursday
Less Prone posted a photo

Social Engineering 101

That's how it goes.
Thursday
Doc Vega posted a blog post

A Prelude to WW III ? It Seems There We Are Trailblazing Idiocy into More Blood and Destruction!

They're rolling out the 25th Amendment trying to stop Joe Biden from insanely thrusting the US in a…See More
Thursday
Less Prone posted a video

Chris Langan - The Interview THEY Didn't Want You To See - CTMU [Full Version; Timestamps]

DW Description: Chris Langan is known to have the highest IQ in the world, somewhere between 195 and 210. To give you an idea of what this means, the average...
Wednesday
Doc Vega posted a blog post

RFK Jr. Appoinment Rocks the World of the Federal Health Agncies and The Big Pharma Profits!

The Appointment by Trump as Secretary of HHS has sent shockwaves through the federal government…See More
Nov 19
tjdavis posted a video

Somewhere in California.

Tom Waites and Iggy Pop meet in a midnight diner in Jim Jarmusch's 2003 film Coffee and Cigarettes.
Nov 19
cheeki kea commented on cheeki kea's photo
Thumbnail

1 possible 1

"It's possible, but less likely. said the cat."
Nov 18
cheeki kea posted a photo
Nov 18
tjdavis posted a blog post
Nov 18
Tori Kovach commented on cheeki kea's photo
Thumbnail

You are wrong, all of you.

"BECAUSE TARIFFS WILL PUT MONEY IN YOUR POCKETS!"
Nov 17

© 2024   Created by truth.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service

content and site copyright 12160.info 2007-2019 - all rights reserved. unless otherwise noted