Welsher!

What would you call someone who had borrowed a lot of money from you, for which you had been willing to take I.O.U.s, and then he made fun of the I.O.U.s?

PARKERSBURG, W.Va. (New York Times) - ... He visited the Treasury Department's Bureau of the Public Debt accounting office here on Tuesday, a trip orchestrated to show that there is no physical vault containing workers' payments into Social Security.

"You see, a lot of people in America think there's a trust, in this sense: that we take your money through payroll taxes and then we hold it for you, and then when you retire, we give it back to you," Mr. Bush said. "But that's not the way it works."

"There is no 'trust fund,' just I.O.U.'s that I saw firsthand, that future generations will pay - will pay for either in higher taxes or reduced benefits or cuts to other critical government programs," Mr. Bush said.

First, I have to say that I think 'a lot of people' live with 'someone' in rhetorical fairy-land. Have you ever met anyone who thought that their payroll tax was being kept in a vault somewhere? Even those who haven't connected with the fact that the system works by having one generation pay for another would probably expect that the money is in some bank account or investment somewhere, earning interest, and not tucked under a mattress. So Mr. Bush is dispelling an impression that only exists in his assertion, a straw man.

Second, why are there so many 'I.O.U.s' in Parkersburg, that will force future generations to pay higher taxes? Because he cut the taxes to this generation of wealthy Americans! He made a special trip to West Virginia for a photo op to ridicule the Social Security Trust Fund, when that same fund has been paying for the goodies he's been doling out since he came to office. Astonishing.

The whole argument that we can't count on the Trust Fund because the money has been spent implies that it won't get paid back. Which implies that Bush expects to take the money and run. Scoundrel.

Update: Congressman Peter DeFazio had some choice comments on the floor of the House.

Let me read from this. This is a Social Security Trust Fund bond, considered the best investments in the world, U.S. Treasury Bond. This is the most privileged of Treasury bonds issued to Social Security, redeemable at any time at full face value, unlike any other bond that they issue. These are the most privileged of their bonds. The President says it is nothing but an IOU. Well, here is what it says: This bond is incontestable in the hands of the Federal Old Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund. The bond is supported by the full faith and credit of the United States. And the United States is pledged to the payment of the bond with respect to both principal and interest.

The President questions that? He is questioning whether we are going to repay our most privileged debt to Social Security. We have $7.9 trillion of debt. He is adding to it at a record rate, borrowing $1.3 million a minute. Who is he saying we are going to repay and not repay?

Are we going to repay the Chinese but not the Social Security Trust Fund? Are we going to repay President Bush, he happens to have some U.S. Treasury Bonds in his personal portfolio, but not the Social Security Trust Fund? Are we going to repay other wealthy investors around the world and in the U.S., but not the Social Security Trust Fund? We are going to selectively default on our debt.

Suggesting something like that, if the bond markets believed the President, the dollar would drop to near zero tomorrow, and there would be an economic catastrophe, but they do not believe him. They know this is just politics and rhetoric on his part. There is no intention of the Government of the United States defaulting on its debt.

This year Social Security will collect $170 billion more than it needs to pay Social Security benefits, and they are invested in the trust fund. If what the President said is true, there is no trust fund, and we are not going to honor it, then Congress and the President are perpetrating a fraud of extraordinary magnitude on the working people of America, extorting through taxes $170 billion more than they need to pay current benefits that this President has no intention of repaying. That is unbelievable.

Every minute, every minute, this President and this Congress are borrowing $320,000 of Social Security taxes and spending it on something else. And the President says he is replacing it with worthless IOUs; they are not bonds, they are not investments. He questions whether they will be repaid. He questions the full faith and credit of the Government of the United States of America and its willingness, our willingness, to meet our obligations and our debt.

If what the President says is true, then we ought to give the working people of America, instead of the rich people of America, the biggest tax cut in history. Reduce the Social Security tax, which falls more heavily on working people. More working Americans pay more in Social Security taxes than they do income taxes to the Federal Government.

If he has no intention of repaying that $170 billion that he is borrowing this year of excess Social Security taxes, then we should not collect it under false pretenses. We should give people a big tax break. That would stimulate small business, employment, and put a lot of money in the pockets of working people. I am not advocating that.

But if he does not repay it, he should be advocating it, and instead of trying to switch the game and having an irrelevant debate over a so-called privatization plan which actually makes the funding problems of Social Security worse and would require another few trillion dollars of borrowing, in which I guess people would get these worthless bonds that the President questions.

Now, who is going to buy those worthless bonds? How is he going to continue to run the Government of the United States borrowing $1.3 million a minute if the bonds of this country are worthless?

This is an extraordinary and reckless statement for the elected President of the United States to make.

Yup.