http://www2.townonline.com/winchester/opinion/view.bg?articleid=171390

Frenkel: Bush administration's use of Social Security trust unlawful
By David Frenkel/ Guest columnist
Thursday, January 27, 2005

At last we have found the dreaded WMD, and they are right here in the United States. WMD: Whoppers of Mass Disinformation.

     President George W. Bush and an entire army of GOP players, including Vice President Dick Cheney, are out shilling for the ultimate destruction of Social Security. They have perfected the art of dressing up, in a benign disguise, acts designed to favor their campaign donors, in this case brokerage houses. They even have the gall to use Department of Social Security trust funds to defray the depletion of the trust funds, as they promote this change - in spite of it not yet being law.

     This represents more unlawful use of public funds and it is enraging many staff members of the Department of Social Security.

     For those in Winchester who are dependant on Social Security, or plan to retire any time soon, you will be pleased to know that this "crisis" is just one more manufactured problem by the Bush conservative radicals, who have learned people will accept unpleasant solutions if they think that they must make an instant decision driven by a crisis. So when you want to pay off your brokerage campaign donors and please your ideologues - all in one post-election victory-glow glorious moment - here is the golden opportunity.

     Never mind that only 9 percent of the people polled by Associated Press last week felt that Social Security should be a high priority topic for the president. Never mind that the receipts from SS taxes are in surplus at present and for many years to come and that Bush is spending our contribution surplus while borrowing even more to pay for his Iraq war and to make up for his massive ill-timed tax cuts for the very wealthy.