Iowa Presidential Watch
Holding the Democrats accountable

3/07/2005

QUOTABLES

"It's a channel difference not a substantive difference," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet group and author of the study about the increase in influence of the Internet. "Newspaper executives probably now have to think of themselves less as newspaper people and more as content people."

"This is an institutional issue of enormous constitutional consequence," said Senator Edward M. Kennedy about the judicial appointment conflict between Democrats and Republicans.

"If the Democrat Party continues this [filibustering judicial nominees], they are going to pay another price in '06," said Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

Senator Trent Lott, said "If they don't stop this [filibustering judicial nominees], and we don't come up with some reasonable solution, we will just have to get it on."

"His [Bill Frist’s] legacy rests on getting these nominees through the United States Senate, and if he is unable to do that, rightly or wrongly, it will reflect on him," said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a conservative lobbying group.

"Nobody likes where we are, but I think that there is understanding that we have to uphold 200 years of precedent and get back to a yea-or-nay vote," said Bob Stevenson, chief spokesman for Sen. Bill Frist.

Linda Eddy stuff-
TOPS in political satire!

www.cafepress.com/righties

Just POlitics

Cash for hostage tragedy

The Washington Times reports on Italian newspaper reports from La Stampa that the probable reason U.S. forces did not know of the plan to spring the Communist reporter was because Italians had decided to pay cash for the hostage:

"Italian intelligence decided to free Sgrena paying a sum to the kidnappers without informing American colleagues in Iraq who, if they had known about this, would have had to oppose it, to have impeded the operation," sources said.

"If this was the case, it could explain why American intelligence had not informed the American military commands about the operation and thus the patrol did not expect the car with the Italians."

Hard-liner to U.N.

According to an Associated Press report, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice informed Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Richard Lugar that the administration is appointing John Bolton as the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations:

Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton, a controversial Bush administration figure whose strong statements on North Korea's nuclear program irked the leaders in Pyongyang, is President Bush's choice to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, a government official said Monday.

Bolton, who has served as Washington's top arms control official, would succeed former Sen. John Danforth, who retired in January.

Dems’ cyber venture

Two Democrat political consultants are launching DemsTV.com on the Internet.

DemsTV.com begins Tuesday and features 20 minutes of talking-head chatter from a rotating cast of young Democratic operatives.

"The primary focus is on politics, and, frankly, a heavy focus is on pointing out the foibles and scandals and dirty little secrets of Republicans that we think don't receive as much coverage in the mainstream media as they might," said Dan Manatt, one of the producers.

The announcement that has been their placeholder at DemsTV.com is of a Hannity bobble-head being run over by an automobile tire.

Making Cyber history

Garrett M. Graff, editor of FishbowlDC, made history as the first blogger to be given a press pass to the White House. Here is his first historic comment from the White House:

This post, it seems, marks the first blog from a White House press briefing. We're sitting in the fourth row waiting between the 9:45 a.m. gaggle and the 12:30 p.m. briefing. Cameramen and reporters are milling around, reading novels, newspapers, and stepping outside for a smoke. Fox News's Carl Cameron just passed by. All-in-all, it's been a remarkably uneventful morning -- which, we're told, is what most mornings are like at the White House.

After a week of attempts, getting into the White House this morning was a piece of cake. We arrived at the northwest gate today promptly at 9:30 as instructed by the Press Office on Friday. The Secret Service officer at the gate was a little puzzled when we explained we didn't have any press credentials, but a scan of the driver's license confirmed we were on the list for the day. After we passed through the gate, he presented us with the Holy Grail: A brown and white pass reading "Press." And we were in.

Our first impression this morning? As glamorous as the beat itself may be, there's little glamour to be found in the briefing room. The conditions of the briefing room, famously built over the old White House swimming pool, um, leave something to be desired.

Full report after the jump.

Lieberman odd man out

The NY Times reports on how Sen. Joe Lieberman, the faithful Vice Presidential candidate that his old running mate Al Gore dumped on when he endorsed Howard Dean without so much as a word, is taking flack from his fellow Democrats:

"I think he has betrayed his constituency and he is leaning way too far to the right," said Marjorie Clark, a Web designer in New Haven and former supporter of Howard Dean's presidential bid who met Wednesday with about 30 other former Dean supporters and discussed a statewide "Dump Joe" effort. Others are trying to recruit a primary opponent while passing out bumper stickers that read "Anybody But Joe."

Their disappointment with Mr. Lieberman illustrates the difficulty of trying to be a centrist in an increasingly polarized political climate. Mr. Lieberman has gone from a possible Democratic heir apparent to a presidential primary footnote in 2004 to the conspicuous odd man out in his own Senate party caucus.

Internet gains

In 2004, seventy-five million Americans used the Internet to get political news and information.

"It's a channel difference not a substantive difference," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet group and author of the study. "Newspaper executives probably now have to think of themselves less as newspaper people and more as content people."

The Pew research showed that more people received their news about how to vote in the last election from the Internet. Radio sank below the Internet as the source of news and newspapers dropped precipitously.

Blogs were cited for their elite effect upon campaigns.

The study also found that those with high speed-connections were 10 percent more likely to receive their news from the Internet (38 percent to 28 percent).

Tax cuts fading

The Washington Post reports on the fact that tax cuts are no longer on the current Republican agenda:

"The large deficits and apparent inability of Republicans to constrain spending has made it impossible for sensible folks to advocate" big tax cuts, said Kevin A. Hassett of the conservative American Enterprise Institute. "Sooner or later. government has to pay for everything."

Three great lies about Social Security

Editorial by: Roger Wm. Hughes

There are three great lies about Social Security that are taken as truths.

The first great lie is that those who are currently receiving Social Security benefits are just drawing their own money out of the system. This is not true because the Social Security System has always been a pay-as-you-go system. The first retirees who received benefits in 1937 never paid into the system. It was those working at that time who paid for the retirees’ benefits. So too, today’s workers are paying for current retirees’ benefits.

Those who are currently receiving benefits must realize that their money is long gone – used as payments to the previous generation’s retirees.

The second great lie is that the money paid into Social Security has been stolen from the system. All surplus money received into the Social Security account (revenues in FICA taxation greater than the amount of money due to current retirees) is accounted for in special treasury bonds. They earn interest, and the U.S. government will have to start paying off those bonds in 2018. It is estimated that in 2018 revenues from FICA taxation will not equal the expenditures to baby boomer retirees.

This surplus – plus interest – is mostly the result of the larger number of baby boomers paying in than their parents drawing out. It is expected that this surplus will run out in 2042.

Currently, there are 3.3 persons paying for each retiree. In 2008, it is expected that there will be 2 persons paying for each retiree. The number of workers paying for each retiree continues to fall for as far as analysts can see.

The third great lie about Social Security is that general revenue tax cuts are creating a short fall in the ability to pay Social Security. The only way that this could possibly be true is if an appropriation from the general fund would be spent to bail out the Social Security System. This is not how the Social Security System is supposed to work.

It is also a given fact by most intelligent observers that over-taxation of an economy robs that economy of future growth. Hence, all government taxation should not be greater than 45 – 50 percent of GDP.

The truth is that the Social Security System is some $10 - 11 trillion short at the current taxation rate of approximately 12.4 percent for Old Age Survivors Disability Insurance (Social Security’s real name). The total FICA taxation with health insurance is approximately 15.3 percent.

The other truth that is constantly being obfuscated is that unless there are saving accounts for the generation working for their own retirement that the third option proposed by President Clinton is not possible. Then, President Clinton raised the alarm of the impending Social Security disaster by saying there were only three possible solutions to the Social Security problem: higher Social Security taxes; cut Social Security benefits; and the third option of getting a higher rate of return on Social Security taxes.

The only way this third option of getting a higher rate of return on Social Security taxes works is if the taxes collected are kept for the generation that is currently working, not paid out to those who are already retired. Those currently working would then have the earning potential of compound interest in higher yielding investments until they retired.

This third option requires a generational shift in Social Security. It requires the current retired generation no longer steal the income of the current working generation. This is difficult to do because the previous retired generation stole their earnings. It is difficult to do because the full un-funded liability to Social Security looms somewhere in the range of $26 trillion... and is currently $10 – 11 trillion short.

Probably the only way to implement this generational shift and ease the burden on our nation and future generations is to implement it gradually. As all of us baby boomers know, this means cutting benefits.

The problem with Social Security will not go away. Current retirees seem fond of the bumper sticker “I’m spending my children’s inheritance.” Nothing could be further from the truth. The current generation of retirees are not spending their children’s inheritance. They are spending their children’s current earnings.

Roger Wm. Hughes is a political consultant and Chairman of Iowa Presidential Watch, a conservative political website and unaffiliated PAC. [e-mail: sixstrategies@wmtel.net]

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