Ship of Fools: Privatization of Social Securty...It's for the Slaves!...erm, We Mean "Negroes"...uhh Blacks...whatever

Bush Shifts Focus to Race in Debate on Social Security

WASHINGTON - Race became a significant factor in the debate over Social Security on Tuesday as President Bush told African American leaders that the government retirement program shortchanged blacks, whose relatively shorter lifespan meant that they paid more in payroll taxes than they eventually received in benefits.

What the hell does the shorter life-span of blacks have to do with the justification of privatized social security? Abso-frickin-lutely nothing. Not a gawd damned thing. It's just another item on the list of lame attempts at getting popular support for allowing George to give still more of OUR money to his crony handlers.

If George was really all that concerned with making social security benefits more fair for blacks with shorter life spans than whites, he'd propose a lower retirement age for blacks. That would be the logical solution to a problem of "the government retirement program shortchanging blacks, whose relatively shorter lifespan means that they pay more in payroll taxes than they eventually receive in benefits." But what about all people with short life spans? What about those with a high genetic risk for cancer? Or heart disease? Or high cholesterol? Is it fair to them to pay into soc sec when they may never live to receive any benefits? And how about men? Men have a relatively shorter lifespan than women! Shouldn't some accounting be made for that? (I'm being facetious, of course. To a point, I hope).

Shit. What kind of morons does King George the Worst take us for, anyway? Oh. That's right. We're 'Muricuns. Stupid is as stupid does. 'Muricuns are just stupid enough to believe any old excuse the Boy pResident gives them for "fixing" a system in "crisis". Wouldn't lowering the retirement age of the "life span challenged" be a better solution to the "problem" of some people not living as long as others? Wouldn't better health care, that is to say "some", for everyone (including -- brace yourself -- low/no-income minorities such as blacks) be an even better solution, yet? Yes, but don't tell the 'Muricuns. They think their pResident has a brain in his head and that his idea for privatizing soc sec is a good one.

Bush's comments came during a private White House meeting with 22 black religious and business leaders who backed his reelection last year - marking a new line of argument in his attempts to win support for adding worker-owned investment accounts to Social Security.

The conversation demonstrated the White House's determination to build on outreach efforts to blacks that proved effective in battleground states last year...

What it actually demonstrates is the ridiculous lengths to which the White House will go to get yet another reckless corpwhoreate boondoggle rammed into existence. Hell, this isn't even a race issue. It's a poverty issue!

Also Tuesday, Republican Senate leaders meeting with Bush at the White House urged him to move cautiously on Social Security, citing the political dangers of tinkering with the program ahead of competitive congressional campaigns next year.

I love it! In other words, "Please, suh…we know that you don't have to worry about re-election and can destroy everything in sight with reckless abandon, but the citizens don't want their soc sec bennies to disappear and we know they'll rightly blame us if they do. So, please, suh, leave it alone. We're afraid this might rouse the people from their stupor and lead to our ouster in two years".