The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Me: These Federal Entitlements Are As Realistic As A Unicycle With A Kickstand

Posted on | November 3, 2010 | Comments Off on Me: These Federal Entitlements Are As Realistic As A Unicycle With A Kickstand

by Smitty

Lefty: Easily done.

 

Me: Well, scratch that analogy. Wait. It’s got no pedals.
Lefty: Bush.
Me: I thought you had a reality-based argument there, momentarily.

Update: And what’s in my reader? A link that gets us to “Scary Wage Data II — Social Security Changes Its Numbers“:

Removing the phony W-2s reduced total compensation by $32.3 billion or 0.55 percent of all the wages, salaries and bonuses earned by Americans. The total number of people with any work was reduced by two to 150,917,733.

As a result of the revisions, the data show that the average wage in 2009 dollars declined by $457 (not $243), a 1.2 percent decline from 2008. The revision shows that since 2000 the average wage, in 2009 dollars, barely changed in real terms, increasing only $347 or 0.9 percent after nine years.

The median wage – half make more, half less — was unchanged at $26,261. The median is $37 lower than in 2000 and $253 lower than in 2008.

It is my fervent hope that the Roberts Court has the courage to revisit prior decisions and note that they have proven pure hooey over time, and simply club them to death with the appropriate legalese flourishes.
Update II:American Enterprise Blog’s Andrew Biggs is a sane conservative, which I guess makes me a raging rabid reactionary, for suggesting raising the early retirement age from 62 to 65.
Retirement is only a Federal problem because it was made one in the name of Holy Progress. The remedy to our current crisis will be found in reviewing soberly just what levels of government own which problems. Systematically and reasonably returning State level concerns to the States, where they belong, will probably become popular after the economic cataclysm coming Real Soon Now, or my name isn’t Half-Cocked Jack.
But forget the common sense solutions, Biggs: let’s discuss shades of lipstick for the pig.

Category: humor

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