Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson is the nation's leading advocate for the health and welfare of all Americans. He is the 19th individual to serve as Secretary of the department, which employs more than 60,000 personnel and has a fiscal year 2003 budget of nearly $503 billion.
$503,000,000,000?
$503,000,000,000.
That's $8,383,333 per employee.
That's $1796 per American citizen.
What kind of money would be needed for Universal Free Health Care to be provided to all? Especially at the great American Bogus Insurance Health Casino. So where's all that money going, going, gone? If you have to ask, guess what jelly bean? You don't have to ask.
hhs.gov/about/bios/dhhssec.html

Business friend? Or business fiend?

Study: Companies Slash Retiree Health Benefits
by Theresa Agovino, AP Business Writer, January 14, 2004
"Companies continued to slash retiree health benefits over the last year, with 10 percent of firms eliminating coverage for future retirees and 71 percent increasing retirees' contributions for their coverage, according to a new study. The survey of 408 large companies released Wednesday found that a fifth of companies said they were likely to terminate health coverage for future retirees in the next three years. Eighty-six percent of companies said they would increase retiree coverage contributions over that period."
Story ...
Even if you pay more for your retirement health coverage, can you feel secure? Chances are no better than 50/50 that you'll get anything for what you thought you had paid for. Companies go bankrupt, even large ones. Companies continue to play with retirement funds in many "creative" ways, both legal and extra-legal which result in the disappearance of astronomical sums of money. Good luck to all you Suckers.

VeeJay says, "Talking Rot? Rot Wing Religious Repubs. Rot. All Rot. Nothin but Rot."
VeeJay says, "Why not? It works so beautifully for them!"

Don't they love talking Rot when they know it's Rot?
Kerry's '350 Tax Increases'
March 25, 2004, by Michael Kinsley, Washington Post
"The purpose of a phony statistic such as this one isn't to convince people of its own accuracy. The purpose is to trap your opponent in a discussion he doesn't want to have (in this case about his past votes on taxes), bog down the discussion in silly details that few people will follow, and leave a general impression that where there's smoke there must be fire. And certainly, if what matters to you above all else is paying fewer taxes, you'd be a fool to choose Kerry over Bush. But this isn't about taxes; it's about honesty. Honesty means more than factual accuracy, it means avoiding disingenuousness: not talking rot when you know it's rot.
"Yes, it's unfair. It's ridiculous. That's the point."

Laws are like sausages. It's better not to see them being made.
-- Otto Von Bismark

VeeJay says, "Which would be better, a gridlock or a Bush Steamroller?"
The world's only living heart donor, the "good" Spin Doctor Frist insists it must be the latter. Why? He says it's good for the people. No, really. You've no doubt heard him mouth that Bushit countless dozens of times. It keeps getting easier and easier for American somnambulists to swallow hooks, lines and sinkers. They scarf them down with extraordinary relish when dished out by politicians with southern accents.

"The rich require an abundance of the poor."

Come on now, VeeJay, buck up. Get a grip. Don't think about your children's children. Don't even think about your children. Think about your blood pressure.

You can watch the play-by-play as they steal and burn your tax dollars.
OMB WATCH
ombwatch.org/

How do rabid Bush supporters think? Here's an example of their ersatz version of "thinking." From a WBAP survey way down in the heart of Good Ole Boy country:
"1/8/2004: Two Forms Of ID Before Sex? The Gary McNamara Show has discussed how lawyers are drawing up pre-sex contracts for their clients, including professional athletes. The contracts would state full consent and state there would be no change of mind. Lawyers are providing a long version contract and a wallet size contract for easy use. What do you think of these contracts? Sounds like a good idea to sexually protect yourself legally: 13% The only pre-sex contract should be wedding vows.: 68% I wouldn't sign away my personal rights: 19%"

wbap.com/survey/default.asp

VeeJay says, "Who is Holly Sklar?"

Holly Sklar says:
"I may have mentioned I often lend my services to certain financial institutions and, since the early 90's, at least 80% of the quarterly retirement investment newsletters I've helped turn into Spanish dropped some story or hint about how Social Security is doomed to dwindle and die of thirst, how they cannot count on it. The regularity of these droppings became so predictable that at some point I refused to believe they were coincidental. A perspective is in order: a couple of years ago a monstrous tax cut for the monstrously rich was passed, the scope of which in deficitary terms is thrice the amount of long term projected Social Security deficit. I am yet to see this mentioned even once in those educational materials that keep coming up every quarter. Do your own reckoning."

For less disneysian explanations of the drug prescription bill and the social security "crisis" (oh those spooky legions of seniors blackmailing Congress and sucking the country dry with their $900 a month SS payments!) you may wish to look here: Medicare Drug Bill:
www.zmag.org/ZMagSite/Jan2004/sullivan0104.html

On Social security, I've received this just a few hours ago, fresh from the press: Social Security isn't broke, but millions of retirees who depend on it are, and many more would be broke without it. The average retired worker's Social Security benefit is just $922 a month--about $11,000 a year. Disabled workers average just $862. One out of three seniors depends on Social Security for 90 to 100 percent of their income. Two out of three seniors depend on it for more than half their income. Even with Social Security, many seniors find themselves choosing between eating and heating, paying the mortgage or paying for medicine.

With Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's help, the Bush administration would rob retirees to pay for tax cuts for the rich. Greenspan recently urged Congress to reduce Social Security benefits and raise the retirement age (now 65 to 67 depending on birth year) rather than roll back the tax cuts, which are the main cause of growing budget deficits. While Greenspan turned 78 on March 6, the life expectancy of white males born in 2000 is just 74.9 years. For black males, it's just 68.6 years. For all American men, life expectancy at birth was 61.6 years in 1940, 65.5 in 1950 and 66.8 in 1960. Keep those life expectancies in mind when you hear calls to raise the retirement age to 70 or higher. And keep in mind the workers in physically debilitating jobs, the growing numbers of workers without health insurance or pensions, and high unemployment and underemployment rates in today's workforce.

Since 1983, the government has collected much more from Social Security taxes than it pays out in benefits in order to build up a surplus for the baby boom retirement. Contrary to common belief, Social Security benefit payments will not begin to exceed Social Security tax revenue until at least 2018. Trustee projections show that the Social Security trust funds, now about $1.5 trillion, will keep Social Security fully financed until the year 2042--nearly four decades from now. That's using pessimistic economic assumptions. The Social Security outlook has improved over time as reality has beaten past projections. Most Americans pay more in payroll taxes than income taxes. The Social Security payroll tax takes a bigger share out of low- and middle-income paychecks than high-income ones because earnings above $87,900 are exempt. Removing this cap would erase most of Social Security's projected future revenue shortfall. The cost of the tax cuts enacted in 2001-2003 is nearly three times greater than Social Security's projected deficit for the next 75 years. That's according to unpublished new estimates from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which also show that the cost of the tax cuts is larger than the combined projected deficits in Social Security and Medicare.

It's obscene to consider cutting Social Security benefits while giving tax breaks to the rich. The average 2004 tax cut for the richest 1 percent--$59,292--is more than five times greater than the average retired worker's Social Security benefit. Imagine that your town's wealthiest family throws a lavish party costing many times more than your annual income. You're not invited, but you get the bill. Worse, they plan to throw increasingly lavish parties every year and want you to shortchange your family, cash in your savings and postpone retirement to pay for them. You'd be outraged.

Between 2001 and 2010, tax cuts for the richest 5 percent of Americans will cost $1.7 trillion, reports Citizens for Tax Justice. That's more than the Social Security trust fund assets. Social Security is popular and politicians who want to kill it can't say that. Instead, they manufacture a "crisis" and offer to fix it with cuts and privatization--a cash cow for Wall Street. They want you so scared Social Security won't be there in the future, you'll let them make that a self-fulfilling prophecy. Don't get duped. Roll back tax cuts for the rich to reduce the budget deficits, not Social Security.

aisethefloor.org/pub.html
Holly Sklar is coauthor of
"Raise the Floor: Wages and Policies That Work for All Of Us"
www.raisethefloor.org/

About the authors:
Holly Sklar. Holly Sklar's standout commentaries on economic and political affairs have appeared in hundreds of newspapers nationwide. She is the coauthor of Shifting Fortunes: The Perils of the Growing American Wealth Gap and author of Chaos or Community? Seeking Solutions, Not Scapegoats for Bad Economics. Sklar's other books include Streets of Hope: The Fall and Rise of an Urban Neighborhood (coauthored), the remarkable story of how the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative is rebuilding a long impoverished Boston community as a dynamic urban village. Sklar is the director of MediaVision, a strategic research, analysis and communications firm based in Boston. Email: hsklar@aol.com.
Laryssa Mykyta. Laryssa Mykyta is a senior policy analyst at Solutions for Progress. While her primary interest lies in labor market policy and effective anti-poverty policy, she has also applied her research and database management skills to projects on health care and education policy. Mykyta's past research addressed the effects of inequality on labor market outcomes for female and minority workers and examined the impact of racial divisions on society. Mykyta also teaches at Temple University where her courses include "Women and the Economy." Email: lmykyta@solfopro.com.
Susan Wefald. Susan Wefald is director of institutional planning at the Ms. Foundation for Women and coordinator of the Raise the Floor campaign. Wefald previously ran a community development consulting business, where she conducted training in the U.S. and Russia. As former staff director of the Naugatuck Valley Project, Wefald coordinated the organizing and economic development work of a coalition of unions, churches and community organizations in Western Connecticut. She is the former assistant director of the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board and taught "Community Organizing and Community Economic Development" at New Hampshire College. Email: swefald@ms.foundation.org.
More at:
www.raisethefloor.org/pub_authors.html

VeeJay says,"Paul Krugman. Why can't we get people like Paul Krugman to be president? He's funny too."
Forget it VeeJay. It ain't never gonna happen. Paul Krugman describes how that Grand Old Republican Party is running huge deficits in order to make Social Security impossible to fund. That's enough to keep anyone out of the Whitehouse. Why? Because it's true.

The Unofficial Paul Krugman Archive
pkarchive.org/

Paul Krugman Princeton Website
wws.princeton.edu/~pkrugman/

nytimes.com/ref/opinion/KRUGMAN-BIO.html