Social Security ...hmmmmm

Just to get your mind to pondering... check out these exerpts regarding Social Security


Fox News July 30
The signed bill that delineates these new regulations is a response to the accounting scandals at WorldCom, Enron, Tyco and other large companies which left thousands of employees without retirement savings and investors with valueless stock shares.
"This new law sends very clear messages that all concerned must heed. This law says to every dishonest corporate leader: 'You'll be exposed and punished. The era of low standards and false profits is over. No board room in America is above or beyond the law,'" Bush said.


Fox News July 30
Earlier in the day, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina told the Democratic Leadership Council that fiscal responsibility has vanished from the government since Republicans claimed the White House from the Clinton administration.
"Washington can't ask businesses to do more unless we live up to our responsibilities as well," the senator said. "We can't just complain about Enron's books. We have a duty to put our own books in order."
The federal government has returned to deficit spending and the parties are bickering out whether that was caused by Bush's tax cut or by a combination of the war on terror and an economic downturn.
"There is no economic leadership coming from the White House," Daschle said. "If they won't lead, Democrats will." "In the span of a year, this administration has turned fiscal responsibility on its ear," said Kerry, "turning a budget surplus into a budget with endless deficits spurred on by an irresponsible and unfairly structured tax cut."
Republican national chairman Marc Racicot said the Democrats' criticism rang hollow coming from senators who had failed to pass a budget during a time of war and economic uncertainty. He described that failure as "an abdication of responsibility and failure of leadership."
DLC members call themselves New Democrats, who believe in blending a pro-business approach with traditional Democratic values. They say it's fair to criticize the Bush administration for being too closely allied with big business.

National Center For Policy Analysis
But demographic factors are accelerating Social Security's problems: Life expectancy is increasing faster than expected -- in 1940, a 65-year-old man could expect to live another 12 years, today it's 15 years, and by 2040 it will be 17 years. The fertility rate is falling faster than expected -- from 3.6 children for a typical woman of child-bearing age in 1960 to just two today and a projected 1.9 by 2020 -- and is already less than the rate of 2.1 needed just to replace the existing population. The elderly portion of the population is expected to rise from 12 percent today to 20 percent by 2050 increasing the number of retirees from 34 million to 80 million. The smaller working-age population and larger elderly population means that where there were more than five workers for each retiree in 1960 and 3.3 workers per retiree today, by 2030 there will be just two workers to pay the taxes for the benefits of each retiree.

Heritage Foundation Executive Memorandum- by David C. John
Americans' Lack of Knowledge About Social Security.
Although Social Security is the government's most popular program, many Americans now little about how it operates and how its benefits compare with the returns from other retirement investments. For example: Millions remain convinced that Social Security maintains a savings account in each of their names with money in it, even though there is no direct connection between the amount of taxes paid and the benefits an individual eventually receives in retirement. Few realize the low rate of return on Social Security retirement taxes. For example, a household of two working, 30-year-old earners with children averages a mere 1.2 percent. Most do not know that the trust funds consist only of IOUs and that, even if these are fully repaid with future taxes, Social Security will be insolvent by 2015 unless it is reformed.
Giving Americans the Facts.
For most Americans, the YSSS, which goes to 123 million workers annually, will be their sole source of official information on the benefits they should receive in retirement. Yet these statements downplay or omit important information about those benefits. They include an accounting of Social Security taxes the individual worker has paid to date, the worker's eligibility for benefits, and an estimate of the various types of benefits the worker and/or family could receive under different circumstances; but while workers are told that they will receive a specific dollar amount from Social Security, they are not told that the money may not be there for them. Nor are they given any idea of the return on their taxes. Provisions in H.R. 634 and S. 354 are designed to ensure that workers receive a more complete picture of Social Security's financial future in their benefit statements. The proposed changes in the YSSS would inform workers about:
How Social Security's projected financial difficulties could affect payment of their benefits. A general (and easily overlooked) paragraph on these problems is hidden at the end of a letter from the Social Security Commissioner, and the reference to Social Security's financial problems does not clearly state that these problems will apply to the individual worker and his or her personal benefits. Under the Straight Talk bill, the YSSS would inform workers that although benefit estimates are based on current law, Social Security's financial problems could cause it to pay less than that amount. A similar disclosure is required of underfunded private pension plans by the U.S. Department of Labor; Social Security would simply match this standard. How Social Security's trust funds differ from private-sector trust funds. In its fiscal year 2000 budget document, the OMB explained that the Social Security "trust funds" do not contain stocks, bonds, or other assets that could be sold directly for cash. Unlike private-sector trust funds, the Social Security trust funds contain only IOUs that will have to be paid back with future taxes. As the OMB noted:
These balances are available to finance future benefit payments...only in a bookkeeping sense. They do not consist of real economic assets that can be drawn down in the future to fund benefits. Instead, they are claims on the Treasury that, when redeemed, will have to be financed by raising taxes, borrowing from the public, or reducing benefits, or other expenditures. The Straight Talk bill would require the SSA to include similar text in future statements. The estimated rate of return on Social Security retirement taxes paid. The Straight Talk bill would require that the YSSS include a chart that plots implicit rates of return by birth year. Similar to a chart found in the GAO's August 1999 report on Social Security's rate of return, this chart would illustrate that the rate of return from Social Security has decreased both steadily and dramatically. Workers would see that unless the current system is reformed, they can expect a lower rate of return on their taxes paid than their parents and grandparents received. More important, they would see that their children and grandchildren will receive even less from Social Security in the future.
Conclusion.
Working Americans should be told the truth about Social Security's financial future and
its impact on the retirement benefits they expect to receive. As taxpayers, they should have a right to this information, which can be provided by the Social Security Administration at little or no cost. The additional information provided pursuant to H.R. 634, S. 354, and similar bills would go a long way toward enhancing the quality of the Social Security debate and enabling Americans to plan more realistically for their retirement years.

What is happening to education in America???

In a country that is considered the second richest in the world it is a shame to know that 13% of our student population never even graduates high school. Locally our public school system generated over $62.9M (2001-2002 school year) representing $5,913 per student annually.1 Nationally the average per student is approximately $6,100 so the argument that we lack funds for high education expectations would be moot. Equally disturbing is the performance of our students on the National Achievement tests. In the year 2002 eighth graders in the State of Arkansas scored below the National Average on all four test categories; Mathematics 261/274, Reading 260/263, Science 143/149, and Writing 142/152.2 The question that you may ask is “Why are we so far behind the National Average?”...the question we should be asking ourselves as parents and as a community is “How can we produce the next generation of leaders?” Even nationally according to the PISA mathematics and science literacy assessments eight countries outperformed the United States in mathematics literacy, and seven had higher average scores for science literacy. The United States had higher average scores than seven countries for mathematics literacy and seven for science literacy.3 (this is out of twenty seven nations in the OECD: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). If the nation's report card is in this much turmoil, then it is not impossible to believe that the future of out children has got to start on the local level.

You may wonder what is hindering out children’s academia. I believe it starts with the focus on extracurricular activities. The local school system only requires that our athletes (football players to cheerleaders) obtain a 2.0 GPA starting in the eighth grade.4 if a child is already only achieving this level of mediocrity one can only imagine the negative effect of additional time spent away from studies will have. It is my opinion that a student should not only be required to perform to a higher level in school, but also have one teacher and one personal recommendation to be able to participate in extracurricular activities. This would entice children to want to perform to a much higher standard to be able to be the quarterback of the football team, the head cheerleader, the forward on the basketball team or the pom squad captain. Of course, this is only one area. As parents we have got to be involved in our child’s education. If last weeks Science test is not important to you, it will not be important to your child, nor will last nights homework. As a community we have got to sponsor more education oriented community events, our children and future leaders need to know that education is important to our entire community; whether it is a book drive, volunteering as a speaker at your local school or even having a company sponsored career days. I believe another enticement to a child’s need for education is their dream of success. We as a community have a responsibility to reveal to them the opportunities that are available to them with the proper education and commitment.
Our school system does not need more funding; it needs more support from its parents, teachers, and community.


Footnotes:1 http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/districtsearch_detail.asp
2 http://nces.gov/nations reportcard/states/profile.asp
3 http://www.urban.org/
4Arkansas Activities Association / Little Rock, AR

Birth of the Elephant and the Donkey:

Oddly, two unconnected events led to the birth of the Republican Elephant.

James Gordon Bennett's New York Herald raised the cry of "Caesarism" in connection with the possibility of a third term try from President Ulysses S. Grant. The issue was taken up by the Democratic politicians in 1874, halfway thru Grant's second term and just before the mid-term elections, and helped disaffect Republican voters. While the illustrated journals were depicting Grant as wearing a crown ,the Herald involved itself in another circulation-builder in an entirely different, non-political area.

This was the Central Park Menagerie Scare of 1874, a delightful hoax perpetrated by the Herald. They ran a story, totally untrue, that the animals in the zoo had broken loose and were roaming the wilds of New York's Central Park in search of prey.Cartoonist Thomas Nast took the two examples of the Herald enterprise and put them together in a cartoon for Harper's Weekly. He showed an ass (symbolizing the Herald) wearing a lion's skin(the scary prospect of Caesarism) frightening away the animals in the forest (Central Park). The caption quoted a familiar fable:"An ass having put on a lion's skin, roamed about in the forest and amused himself by frightening all the foolish animals he met within his wanderings". One of the foolish animals in the cartoon was an elephant, representing the Republican vote, not the party, the Republican vote - which was being frightened away from it's normalties by the phony scare of Caesarism.

In a subsequent cartoon on November 21st, 1874 after the election in which the Republicans did badly, Nast followed up the idea by showing the elephant in a trap,illustrating the way the Republican vote had been decoyed from it's normal allegiance.Other cartoonists picked up the symbol, and the elephant soon ceased to be the vote and became the party itself: the jackass, now referred to as the donkey, made a natural transition from representing the Herald to representing the Democratic party that had frightened the elephant.

#4. Bad Teeth

Ewwwww!!! Trying to carry on a conversation with someone with bad teeth is so distracting! There is a gas station down the road from me that must have a qualification of really bad teeth. The women just want to talk and talk and I never have any idea what the full conversation is about because I literally cannot take my eyes off the little black hole of tic tacs pointing every which way inside... Some of them just have brown nubs sticking out of their really pink gums. Seriously, I know that not everyone can afford the dentist, but a toothbrush is cheap! And how can you go about a day without brushing your teeth?

Several years ago I worked in an office with several other women. One day the girl over the cubicle wall says to her cube mate "I forgot to brush my teeth today, do you have any gum?"
All I could think was "gross", "gross", "gross"..... How do you forget your teeth?? And believe me, she should have had no problem with that because every time I spoke to her she had things stuck in her teeth. I have no idea what they were, I have no care as to what they were.

Ok--- just yuk.