The Social Security Trust Fund has not been 'looted'.

[TrollBuster9090]

50. Yep, it's in the same vein as the Norquist style "Starve the beast" ideas for destroying government.

Fact is, most people LIKE Government intervention when it came to A) stopping business from screwing us (aka 'making sure business' remain good corporate citizens), and B) Providing senior citizens with a solid pension fund and affordable medical care.

The Plutocratic class doesn't benefit from these programs. They don't need them. REGULAR people do.

Still, the plutocratic class OWNS CONGRESS. That's never been more apparent than it is now. Not even during the gilded age. So, why hasn't the plutocratic class told their Congressional puppets to kill these programs? Because they know it would be political suicide, and if the Congressmen they own get thrown out of power, they'll lose influence.

So, they've done something much more stealthful. Found a way to LOOT these programs, while leaving them alone in name only (so as not to suffer from the political fallout), and simultaneously causing them to collapse under their own weight.

1. DON'T DISMANTLE regulatory agencies like the SEC. Simply stack them with cronies that don't believe Wall Street should be regulated, and then starve them of resources until they can't actually DO the job they're supposed to do. Then when the whole system falls apart, say "LOOK, the SEC didn't do anything to prevent that from happening, so we may as well get rid of it."

2. Rather than repealing gun laws, simply add amendments, and cripple the ATF, and make it impossible for them to actually ENFORCE the laws they're supposed to be enforcing. Then, when there's a mass shooting, and more gun laws are called for, say "there are already lots of laws on the books that didn't do anything to prevent this, why would MORE useless laws help?"

3. LOOT the social security trust fund by borrowing the money that's in it, and then getting your political henchmen to float the idea that it doesn't have to be paid back. That's GENIUS! Not only have you DESTROYED social security without suffering ANY of the political ramifications, but you also got to LOOT IT while you were destroying it, given that all that money was probably paid out to political cronies for whatever projects were being funded.

Thomas Frank illustrated how this racket works pretty well in his book THE WRECKING CREW.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wrecking_Crew_(book)