Comparative Loss of Freedom

News item: The Swift Boat Veterans, who ran the TV ads that attacked John Kerry’s decorated service during the Vietnam War, are now planning a TV attack series against AARP (American Association of Retired People) due to its opposition to the president’s plan to privatize Social Security. A war chest of money is being planned to produce and broadcast these ads, which the White House says it has nothing to do with.

History: In 1933 Nazi Germany’s “Brown Shirts” verbally (and sometimes physically) attacked anyone who opposed Adolph Hitler and his party. By use of Joseph Goebbels’ “Big Lie” standards they challenged anyone who dared and destroyed anyone who opposed them. If you dared to argue back, the Gestapo used the 1933 Enabling Act, which was passed to protect the country during trying times, and would arrest you in the middle of the night, send you to a concentration camp to be tortured, and would not allow any right of law to protect you. Adolph Hitler could have stopped it if he wanted to, but feigned ignorance of it.

Today: In 2005, organizations such as the Swift Boat Veterans, will verbally abuse anyone who opposes George W. Bush and his party. By use of Karl Rove’s “Big Lie” standards they, and the ultra- right wing FBI and Justice Department heads, will challenge anyone who dares oppose them. If you dare to argue back, the CIA, using the Patriot Act passed to protect the country during trying times, will spirit you off in the middle of the night aboard their super secret special plane, fly you to a foreign country, and torture you. You will have no rule of law to protect you. George W. Bush could stop it if he wanted to, but feigns ignorance of it.

This is a sad but true comparison. The plane exists and has been written about in the major newspapers. The major problem is that Americans are turning their backs on this and don’t want to know what is happening to their rights which are being stepped on by the current administration.

Only We Are Allowed To

Dear Editor:

It is very understandable that Ms. Rice postponed her trip to Egypt, reflecting our deep displeasure at their jailing of a leading opposition figure. After all, everyone knows that it is part of the Bush American Policy, that only we can torture prisoners. If anyone else does it they don't understand the meaning of democracy. This "only we can" theory also applies to owning atomic weapons, being a debt society, hiding prisoners of war, causing global warming, invading other countries for our own desires, etc, etc, etc.

Social Security Trust Fund Scam

Dear editor:

Just imagine. You are planning your retirement and decide to give money on a regular basis to your brother-in-law to hold and invest for you so you will have a nest egg when you reach your “golden years.” He gives you an IOU each and every year for your investment and even gives you an IOU at the same time for your annual interest earned. What you don’t know is that he is spending this money on his own needs and really has no intention of ever paying you back. In fact, when you demand your money at retirement time he informs you that you will either have to take less in return or give him more so he can pay you back. Sound strange? Feel like you would never allow that to happen? Don’t kid yourself. It’s been happening to you for over 50 years and our presidents and congress have been that brother-in-law.

Right now, our, or what we thought was ours, Social Security Trust Fund holds IOUs from the U.S. Treasury for over 2 trillion dollars. How did this happen? The government “borrows” this money every year to use for its general budget expense and therefore does not have to go out and borrow elsewhere. As a result it does not have to increase taxes or cut back on its general spending. In fact, it allowed President Bush and some of his predecessors to give a tax cut at the trust funds expense. In return it gave the fund IOUs for the money not needed, at that time, to pay benefits.

After all this 50 year scam being perpetrated on us, President Bush and many of his compatriots are claiming that “Social Security is going bankrupt.” But that is not the immediate problem, even though something has to be done to shore up the account in about 35 to 40 years. It is our government’s inability to pay back the money to the fund that will be needed to pay benefits that the American public is entitled to that is the real culprit in trouble. Social Security shouldn’t have to cut back on benefits or raise more money through withholding taxes, it’s the general budget controlled by Congress and the president that needs adjusting. And it shouldn’t be at the expense of education or medical care or other entitlements that are necessary. We need to take a long look at those tax cuts for the rich that the president wants to make permanent and our ballooning defense costs caused by his pre-emptive war in Iraq.

It’s time for our government to stop being our scamming brother-in-law and give us back our money

Drug advertising of Cox-2 Inhibitors

Dear Editor:

News reports are being broadcast that the FDA is set to begin hearings on a class of pain killers known as Cox-2 inhibitors, which go by the brand names of Vioxx, Celebrex, and Bextra. These drugs have been widely touted on TV and in the print media as prescriptive miracle drugs that will relieve pain due to arthritis and other body aches. The advertising always tells the viewer or reader to “ask your doctor” about this medication.

The reason for the upcoming hearing is because recent double blind studies have shown that these medications have caused double and sometimes triple the incidence of heart attack, kidney failure, stroke, and heart failure. Vioxx has already been removed from drug store shelves.

The manufacturers and the medical establishment have now stated that the pain killing effect of these drugs is no greater than Tylenol, Aleve and Ibuprofen. Of course there is one major difference between the prescriptive drug and the over the counter medication, and that is cost. Cox-2 inhibitors cost the patient about $3 a day and the over the counter medications cost the patient pennies a day.

So why do patients go running to their doctor and ask for the medication? Advertising is the only answer. Remember, the public is told to “ask their doctor” if they should be taking Cox-2 inhibitors. Needless to say, this has created a huge market.

Most people would blame the advertising that pushes these pills (and others for various diseases), and they would be right, but only partially. To me, the major blame belongs to the physicians who write the prescriptions. Instead of using their good judgment and keeping the benefit of their patient in mind, including cost, they listen to the patient’s request and write that piece of paper. Makes one wonder who is making the decision to prescribe and what the drug company does for the doctor in return.

Do You Love

Do you love to walk hand in hand in the rain?
Do you love to be in the mountains during a rainstorm and feel the power of thunder roll thru the hills?
Do you love to watch the magic of lightening illuminate the evening sky?
Do you love to build a snowman?
Do you love the smell of the fields after a rainstorm?
Do you love to lie on your back at night and wonder at the magnificence of God’s handiwork?
Do you love the innocence of a child?
Do you love to go for an early morning swim in a mountain lake with nothing on?
Do you love to learn all the days of your life?
Do you love to wander through a field or meadow with a loved one with no destination in mind?
Do you love to grow old with that someone special you love?
Do you love to watch the sun go down and enjoy the brilliance of God’s palette of colors?
Do you love the comfort and sharing of being with your family?
Do you love peace and serenity?
Do you love to make love?

That’s what love and life are all about.
Sam Schoolsky©
April 1996

Mr. Bush the Salesman

Dear Editor:

President Bush is criss-crossing the nation hawking his plan for “privatization” of Social Security, based upon his assumption that this 70 year old safety net for the elderly is “going bust” and we have to change the way it operates. Of course, as of late, he is changing the tune a little and saying that this is only part of the solution. But, let’s look at his record on this kind of approach to convince America.

Three years ago we were told, very specifically, that we must have a preemptive war against Iraq because they were a threat to our freedom due to their ability to hit us with Weapons of Mass Destruction. We were doomed if we waited for a “mushroom cloud” to appear over our country and the cost of doing nothing was much greater than the undisclosed cost of a war. Even though this was sold to the public, the Congress, and the United Nations as a grave threat, we now know that the WMDs did not exist and America came out with egg on its face even though Mr. Bush now claims that the “real” (adjusted) reason for losing 1,400 plus lives of American fighting people was to spread democracy. But the fact remains that the president and his advisors were either incompetent or lying.

Next came the Medicare Drug Benefit bill that Mr. Bush touted to America, which would solve the rising cost of prescriptive medicine for seniors. He promised Congress, and us, that the cost would not exceed $400 billion. Two months after traveling the country convincing the public the need for this drug company slanted bill and pushing it through the Senate and the House, we found out that the real cost estimate was way in excess of $500 billion. And now, a year later, we know the true cost, if it holds at this, will be over $700 billion. Once again the president and his advisors were either incompetent or lying.

So now we come to the president’s sales pitch on his Social Security plan that he claims will even out in cost over a long period of time even though it will require borrowing trillions of dollars in the short term. If this is passed, will different numbers appear a year from now? Will the president and his advisors once again prove to be either incompetent or liars? Based upon their history, the odds are good for that happening.

Mr. Bush and company must think the American public is pretty stupid. After all, with his record didn’t he get reelected?

Don Quixote's Budget for Bush

President Bush has submitted his budget for FY 2006 in the amount of 2½ trillion dollars and a record deficit of $457 billion dollars, even though he still insists that he will cut the deficit in half by 2009 (after he is out of office.) This all is predicated on spending cuts by Congress (called passing the blame) and economic growth of over 6%. That’s all very optimistic. But let’s assume his numbers are right, and see where we really stand.

Missing from Mr. Bush’s budget are a few rather important items; 1) Not the first penny for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, which right now is costing $1 billion a week; 2) Not a penny for his plan to privatize Social Security which analysts say will cost a couple of trillion dollars in the next number of years; and 3) not a penny of coverage for the tax cuts he wants to make permanent. All told those three items could add as much as another quarter of a trillion dollars on to the budget.

The average American better stop and think very carefully about what this Quixotic math means. It means that if you do a household budget for your family without figuring the cost of rent or mortgage, without figuring the cost of food, and without figuring the cost of transportation, you can go on that long dreamed of first class vacation to Tahiti, and still have extra money in the bank. Magical? No, idiotic. See you in the poor house.

Chicken Little The Sky Is Falling

Dear editor:

Any first grader can tell you that when you dig a hole, the more you dig, the bigger it gets. Common sense. And, in order to close that hole you have to put dirt in. Again, common sense.

So, let’s take a look at Mr. Bush’s common sense when it comes to Social Security. He is going around the country crying Social Security is going to go bankrupt in the future, and we are digging a hole that is going to ruin the system initiated by Franklin Roosevelt. Does he recommend that we fill in that hole? No! He wants to “solve” the problem by digging further and taking money out of the system by allowing people to “privatize” their future, leaving less money to pay retirees on Social Security. The hole is getting bigger, much bigger. But, chicken little has used the scare tactic again and is telling us the “sky is falling” and Social Security is doomed without privatization. Who is he kidding?

Anyone with any common sense also would tell you that one of the worst things you can do financially is to borrow money to invest in the stock market. Financial advisors have always counseled that the market is like gambling and you should only use “extra” money that you can afford to lose. In fact when President Clinton wanted to gamble Social Security funds in the stock market the Republican members of Congress stopped him cold. And they were right. But, this president wants to borrow trillions of dollars so the average person can gamble their Social Security benefits of the future in the stock market. This is not common sense.

All in all, “privatization” has no relationship to and does not solve the problem of the need to adjust the Social Security system so that it does not have to cut back on benefits 25 to 30 years from now. We shouldn’t use that need to allow the president to help his friends in the stock market earn huge commissions and fees (that we will have to pay for, one way or the other) by creating private accounts with Social Security funds.

Retirement Gamble

This email letter was written to New York Times columnist, Herb Krugman, commenting about his column of Feb 4th titled Retirement Gamble.

Mr. Krugman-

I agree with your column that Mr. Bush is leading America down a dangerous financial path. But, let's face it, his past, personal business success, or rather lack of it, has shown he does not understand how to handle money.

There are two points on this subject that I do not see anyone answering. First, how much larger a government will be created and cost to handle and oversee this "privatization?" It won't happen by itself. Secondly, as anyone who has invested in the market knows, there will be fees by the government "contracted brokers." Who is going to pay this? If the individual account holder has to pay them, then your return will be smaller by that amount. If the government is going to absorb them, then there goes the deficit even higher.

The biggest winners are going to be the brokerage houses and individuals who will be handling the trillions of dollars involved. Their fees and commissions are going to be astronomical. And let's face it, those leaders of industry that have stock option plans are going to hit a windfall when their stock prices rise due to the addition of all those monies into the stock market pool. That's who Mr. Bush is really paying back with this plan.