you would think that the NYTimes would learn something -after they

[rodeodance]

parroted BushCo on the Iraq war-but guess not.



http://mediamatters.org/items/200504070002

NY Times endorsed Bush distortion about Social Security trust fund

In an April 6 New York Times article, reporter Anne E. Kornblut asserted that President Bush "was on solid ground when he said it was basically 'just I.O.U.'s.' "

If this description of the trust fund is accurate, it is also an accurate description of every mutual fund account, every personal savings account, every checking account, every certificate of deposit, and every money market account owned by Americans, as well as hundreds of billions of dollars of U.S. treasury bonds owned by foreign central banks worldwide. All of these are "just I.O.U.'s." In fact, the private account plan that Bush has been advocating, which would allow workers to divert nearly two-thirds of their share of payroll taxes into portfolios that would include stock funds and government bonds, would also be "just I.O.U.'s."

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is obligated to purchase Treasury securities with its surplus payroll taxes, and the U.S. Treasury is legally obligated to redeem them as needed by the SSA. Currently, the trust fund contains about $1.7 trillion worth of these securities. The total amount of outstanding debt issued by the Treasury, including both debt owned by the public and intra-governmental holdings, is currently about $7.8 trillion.

Allan B. Hubbard, director of the White House National Economic Council and assistant to the president for economic policy, extolled the security of U.S. Treasury bonds in an April 6 Wall Street Journal op-ed touting Bush's Social Security plan. "Furthermore, the president's proposal clearly shows how we can minimize risk. The owner's personal retirement account could remain invested entirely in risk-free government bonds," Hubbard wrote.
.....

[autorank]

1. The NYT enabled war criminals with lies. Everything else is a footnote.

They are the biggest liars in the American Media, yes bigger than Faux. Judith Miller's claims of WMD were based on Chalabi's information, which was suspect to say the least. They lie and enough moderates believe it to allow * to go forward with Iraq. Had they shown one ounce of journalistic ability and integrity, we might not be in Iraq. Remember all the demonstrations and resistance pre-Iraq. They, more than any potentially moderating force, killed that off.

[caligirl]

2. Read the Times Editorial, It rips Bush on this.

Shameless Photo-Op

Published: April 7, 2005


ARTICLE TOOLS


Imagine this: On his next trip to Japan, President Bush visits the vault at the Bank of Japan, where that country's $712 billion in United States government bonds is stored. There, as the cameras roll, he announces that the bonds, backed by the full faith and credit of the United States, are, in fact, worthless i.o.u.'s. He does the same thing when he visits China and so on around the world, until he has personally repudiated the entire $2 trillion of United States debt held by foreigners.

Mr. Bush rehearsed just that act on Tuesday, when he visited the office of the federal Bureau of Public Debt in Parkersburg, W.Va. He posed next to a file cabinet that holds the $1.7 trillion in Treasury securities that make up the Social Security trust fund. He tossed off a comment to the effect that the bonds were not "real assets." Later, in a speech at a nearby university, he said: "There is no trust fund. Just i.o.u.'s that I saw firsthand."

Social Security takes in more money than it needs to pay current beneficiaries, and the excess is invested in the Treasury securities that Mr. Bush was discussing. They carry the same legal and political obligations as all other forms of Treasury debt, every penny of which has always been paid in full and on time.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/07/opinion/07thu3.html