Social Security plan needs work

By Ryan Jenkins
Staff Writer

Social Security, the so-called third rail of politics, is up for debate. Before its official, though, many members of Congress are going home to preach to their constituencies about it, one way or the other.

For the mighty Republicans, with their powerful majorities and stranglehold on the White House and Supreme Court, the task is simply getting people behind them so they don’t suffer any negative fall-out. They’re armed with powerful rhetoric, words and phrases carefully crafted in order to tug the heart strings of American’s workers, and others tailor-fit to cause older generations to worry about their grandchildren’s future. When asked challenging questions, the Republicans have been told to say that they’re scared of the future implications of the system, of the economic fallout that’s going to happen soon. Surely, America will follow their words based on that value alone. After all, it works when you’re trying to get elected.

For the Democrats, the few, the proud and the minority party, the task is rallying the American people to fight, to prevent a plan that will cost trillions of dollars extra at the onset and favor the upper class. Their rhetoric isn’t as appealing, being full of facts and numbers, and distinctly lacking in charged, emotional attacks. They do come armed with an online calculator designed to let people determine how the new plan will affect them.

When will the Democrats learn that Americans don’t want facts or logic? They want to be told what to believe. Emotional terrorism would be the best option for gaining the support of the majority of Americans.

Bush’s economic plans are, at best, a monument to the God of Stupidity and Bad Jokes. Let me do a little introduction to economics here. First, we have to pay interest on the debt. The larger the debt, the larger the interest we have to pay. If we spend more than we make, the debt rises, and the interest also rises. So, if we increase spending, we’ll have to increase it even more the next year in order to pay the interest of a rising debt. This is why balanced budgets are good, and deficit spending in the half a trillion dollars a year range is bad.