$11.1 TRILLION?

I heard some amazing stuff today on NPR (which, despite it's flaws is still one of the only decent news sources we have left). A story by John Ydstie (that is not how I would have guessed his name is spelled) about the social security report that came out today. He mentions how social security is now projected to have a $4 trillion deficit over the next 75 years. Now it seems to me that economists have a hard enough time projecting things out 6 months much less 75 years, but there it is. He then quotes Treasury Secretary Snow emphasizing a different more 'controversial' number:

The unfunded obligation looking out over the long time horizon on a permanent basis is $11.1 trillion.

Hmmmmm. . .what exactly is the 'long time horizon' and what does 'permanent basis' mean? It turns out, as Ydstie goes on to explain, that the projection which generates that number is the 'infinite future!' And you thought 75 years was a long time! That's nothing, apparently the government can make projections into infinity! But wait, it gets even better. Among the assumptions used to make that projection are that life expectancy increases to 150 years, but the retirement age stays at 67. Whoa! Talk about being born too early! Who knew that we were headed for a utopian world where we all live to be 150 and retirement lasts 83 years! So for our society to endure infinitely with more than half our lives spent in retirement we would only have to pony up $11.1 trillion more? Seems like a hell of a deal, sign me up!

But that wasn't even the most amazing part of the story as we all know that whatever dribbles out of the mouths of the Bushies is going to be bullshit anyway. After pointing out that Medicare is in much worse shape than Social Security, Ydstie says:

So far the Bush administration has not put forward a plan to restore solvency to either the Social Security or Medicare trust funds. The President's proposal for private Social Security accounts would do nothing to improve the solvency of the retirement system.

I had to slap myself to see if I was awake. Did I just hear a reporter say, straight up, that Bush has no plan and private accounts won't fix Social Security?

Like I said, amazing stuff.

EVEN SOME REPUBLICANS. . .

. . .can see the dangers of what their party is doing:

This Republican Party of Lincoln has become a party of theocracy

--Rep Christopher Shays (R) CT

JUAN COLE -- READ HIM

Juan Cole, Professor if Middle East History at the University of Michigan, and writer of the excellent Middle East blog Informed Comment, clealry illustrates our slide into theocracy:

The cynical use by the US Republican Party of the Terri Schiavo case repeats, whether deliberately or accidentally, the tactics of Muslim fundamentalists and theocrats in places like Egypt and Pakistan. These tactics involve a disturbing tendency to make private, intimate decisions matters of public interest and then to bring the courts and the legislature to bear on them. President George W. Bush and Republican congressional leaders like Tom Delay have taken us one step closer to theocracy on the Muslim Brotherhood model.

The whole thing is worth a read, and it is not that long, but I will leave you with his conclusion.

Republican Hisba will have the same effect in the United States that it does in the Middle East. It will reduce the rights of the individual in favor of the rights of religious and political elites to control individuals. Ayatollah Delay isn't different from his counterparts in Iran.

Whatever happened to the good old days when conservatives opposed government interference in people's personal lives?

MORE THEOCRACY: ON TERRY SCHAIVO

I won't start this post with "I wasn't going to blog about the Schaivo case" because every post I read about it starts that way. I will only say that what the Republicans in congress are doing defies imagination and I cannot find words to describe my disgust and anger in this case. Other, more talented, bloggers and writers do have some words though, so I will point you to them:

To read about the absolute hypocrisy of the GOP check out Digby.

Check out how Senate Republicans consider this a great political issue.

Read about Bill Frist's mendacity here.

Ed Kilgore has good thoughts here and here.

If a profanity-laden rant is what you are looking for, look no further.

On the positive side polls are showing broad disapproval of congress' intervention by the American Public.

[UPDATE] Dahlia Lithwick, who is, in my opinion, one of the best political wirters around (and THE BEST writer on legal issues), has a must read article on the case.

JUST TO PROVE WE'RE NOT PARTISAN

Democrats can do things that need to be resisted as well. Here is MN DFL State Senator Sandy Pappas talking about her proposed legislation to make it illegal for kids to buy adult-rated video games (not illegal for stores to sell them, but for kids to buy them:

Who says children have First Amendment rights?

I guess she's right, after all we all know that children are to be seen and not heard, right? I mean who says children have any rights at all? They are property of their parents and, failing that, the state I guess (Hat tip: MN Politics Guru)


Unbelievable

UPDATE: Who says children have first ammendment rights? Apparently the United States Supreme Court, which held in Erznoznik v. Jacksonville in 1975 that:

Speech that is neither obscene as to youths nor subject to some other legitimate proscription cannot be suppressed solely to protect the young from ideas or images that a legislative body thinks unsuitable for them. In most circumstances, the values protected by the First Amendment are no less applicable when government seeks to control the flow of information to minors.

So, not to trample on your first ammendment rights Senator Pappas, but I think you need to shut up unless you know what you are talking about.

CORRUPTION ABOUND

A picture is worth a thousand words:

For further info on the absolute corruption among the Republican leadership I give you the excellent daily Delay.

Welcome

Resistance is NOT futile