Snow Baffled by Resistance to Private Accounts

[Rose Siding]

BOZEMAN, Mont. (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow said on Wednesday he was confused by resistance to the Bush administration's plans to overhaul the Social Security system, while protesters blasted the proposed private retirement accounts during his stop in Montana.

Snow, in remarks to the Chamber of Commerce in Bozeman, said he believed personal accounts for young workers would be cost-free for the existing Social Security system and would not affect benefits to retirees or near-retirees.

"For the life of me, I can't imagine why anybody would argue against young workers having the ability to invest and build a better retirement for their future," Snow said.

"Why wouldn't we do this? I have not heard one good reason not to and it's hard to figure out why anybody would oppose it," he said.

More than 30 protesters, spanning several generations, held up signs reading "No Personal Accounts" and "Don't Be Snowed -- Save Social Security" along the highway outside the hotel where Snow spoke.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=8038531&src=rss/ElectionCoverage

[FlaGranny]

1. Snow must not be very bright. n/t

[madrchsod]

5. he ran a railroad

almost into bankrupty...the railroad had a monopoly on the east coast.

[Warpy]

7. No, he's just insulated from reality by a tremendous amount of money

and is utterly clueless about how the rest of us live paycheck to paycheck, often without enough money to pay all our bills every month, and certainly not enough to save for the kind of retirement he feels entitled to.

These rich assholes just don't GET that people they've been attacking for 30 years by depressing wages and hiking taxes to pay for their own lavish lifestyles ARE NOT MAKING IT in America. They have no fucking idea on earth that average people don't have trust funds, fat inheritances, and generous portfolios to carry them through when assholes JUST LIKE SNOW ship their jobs overseas and say gee, it's just too bad that the only one hiring is Walmart and what do you mean people who work for Walmart get foodstamps, that's SOCIALISM and let's put an end to it!

Snow is our deadly enemy, as are all his class. Never forget it.

[raccoon]

21. many average people

also have no health insurance and can't pay for health care.

Great post, Warpy. As you said, "all his class" are our enemy.
Regardless of which party they belong to.

[Lab2112]

34. RE: Snow must not be very bright.

Maybe he's disappointed that when it comes to SS and private accounts, not everyone is willing to fall for this obvious Snow job.

LAB

[RoyGBiv]

2. Well that makes sense ...

He's a moron.

[gratuitous]

3. Not one good reason?

How about your own boss's admission that private accounts carved out of the system won't solve the problems that you're currently trying to scare folks with? That seems to be a good reason to me: If the solution doesn't fix the problem, you might want to find another solution. Dummy.

And considering the fiscal track record of this corrupt administration, that is, that you went from record surpluses to record deficits in three years and now there is no end in sight to the deficits you're running (thanks to your wholesale transfer of the Treasury from the people who have paid in to the overrich), why in the world would anyone trust you with another dime?

[Brooklyn Michael]

24. I'll give him four...

1) ENRON

2) WorldComm

3) Tyco

4) Citigroup

So.....With an administration that has bent over backwards giving corporations more gifts than Santa on Extasy - more lenient corporate backruptcy laws, de-regulation at all levels, a toothless SEC - while those same corporations have had more ethics and accounting scandals in the last few years than anyone can count.....All this, and Snow can't figure out why people are reluctant to sink their money into private accounts run by and reliant on the corporate executives who would knife their own mothers in the back if it meant a bigger golden parachute for their CEO....

Yeah, I have NO idea why people are so reluctant, John.....

...you asshat.

:think:

[Cocoa]

4. but who does he choose to speak with

if he's confused about the thoughts of the people who are resisting, then how come he only talks to people like the Chamber of Commerce, who are on board?

Why doesn't he excuse himself, get off his fat ass, and go outside and ask the protestors why they're resisting?

[caledesi]

6. The protest signs should read:

"You can't sh*t in my face and call it snow."

LOL!

[dave123williams]

8. Anybody that supid or disingenuous shouldn't head Treasury...

[Media_Lies_Daily]

9. Snow's baffled by anything that's important to the lower 99%.

[notadmblnd]

10. If he hasn't heard then he is not listening

1 we don't need to go into another 2 trillion into debt

2 establishing private accounts does nothing to make SS permenently solvent

3 The chimps plan limits how much you can earn on your investments then they want a piece of the action

4 It's a windfall only for wallstreet bankers

5 it will force cuts for people already on SS

6 there will be an entire group of people in their 30 and 40 whose benefits will decrease or will get none after paying into the system for sevral years

7 with corporate corruption these days (Enron, MCI, Tyco Adelphia) it's just too much of a risk.

[demosincebirth]

11. When working men and women invest their retirement, as people

did working for Enron, they lose their whole nest egg. When the wealthy, like Mr Snow, invest their retirement and lose it, they still have millions and millions in assets left. Mr Snow and the republicans just don't get it, and never will.

[Megahurtz]

12. Well Snow is a

fucking idiot.

So what happens if when one is saving up for a private account, they don't quite get to a few years down the road and then they get permanently disabled with an illness or accident?

Then where's the money going to come from,

dumbass ????

:dunce:

[spooked911]

13. has he even seen the stock market lately?(not today-- in general)

:eyes:

[tanyev]

14. Yep, it's a real mystery.

[cascadiance]

15. From the subject line I at first thought Olympia Snow had lost it...

... and we were going to be losing the Republican "split" that has to come soon.

[caledesi]

17. me too - then I almost lost it. nt

[Beetwasher]

16. I Don't Get It? We're Spending Millions On Propoganda And No One's Buying!

What the hell is wrong with people??? They all of a sudden developed an aversion to bullshit? How'd THAT happen?

[SoCalDem]

18. Probably because some people have caught on to their game

and are tired of being lied to. And most people would rather have something they can COUNT ON, even if it might be a little less than they "might" get, if they are "lucky".. Old age is the WRONG time to find out that you were "unlucky",, By then there's no time left to start over..

[cascadiance]

20. From their point of view, what do they have to lose...

They can both spend our government into the toilet, which they want to do anyway to destroy it and "privatize" it at some point in the future to "rescue" it, and in the process find free ways of brainwashing as many folks they can into accepting it. The key questions are why do we accept this state of affairs any longer, and what do we do about it?

[Sandpiper]

19. Snow doesn't have to work for a living

So, understandably, he's confused at why people who do would not want to gamble their one sure thing on the stock market.

[UpInArms]

22. Hey Blowjob! Here are some pictures for you!

Budget Deficits Soar

[Robert Oak]

23. Snow baffled by simple math equation 1+1=? n/t

[GiovanniC]

25. Why -- WHY -- Don't People Want to Accept Less Money

so that we can auction off their retirement money to our corporate buddies?

WHY??!

[rocktivity]

26. Maybe this will help you out, Mr. Snow

http://www.syntheticniche.com/ss/

By the way, maybe you WOULD hear "good reasons to oppose" SS privitization if you stopped throwing out people who might be protestors!

:headbang:
rocknation

[Laurab]

27. Well, Snowjob, it's really a no-brainer

does wal-mart sell brains? They are sorely lacking in this administration.

[The White Tree]

28. From the fantasy mind of Treasury Secretary John Snow

That means I'm making it up folks, but ask yourselves if you think it could be true.

Scene - John Snow sits at his desk pondering social security private accounts.

"I can't imagine why anyone would argue against this. I mean it's not like social security is something your supposed to live on. That's what your trust fund is for. That's what you use your corporate stock options for."

[SaveAmerica]

29. Does anyone know what happened to the G Fund money he

borrowed from right before (or around) the election? Someone kept posting on the blog on the official Kerry/Edwards page to warn our mail carriers that Snow would be using the G fund (money government employees put aside for retirement) to pay government expenses until they could raise the debt ceiling (hope I'm wording that right). I saw that it was quietly used sometime in November, is there anyway to find out if and when that money would be (or was) returned?

[UpInArms]

31. the first time that was done was 2002

http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aa051702a.htm

Dateline: 05/17/02

The United States government will, for the first time in its history, fall into financial default on June 28 unless Congress acts before then to raise the legal limit on the national debt.

The June 28 deadline was announcement earlier this week by Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill, who had previously not set a deadline by which Congress needed to increase the current $5.95 trillion debt limit. Should the national debt exceed the debt limit, the government is considered in default and loses its ability to borrow money necessary to keep the government running and pay the interest due on debt. President Bush's budget projects that the national debt could rise to $6.099 trillion at the end of fiscal year 2002 and to $6.489 trillion at the end of 2003.

Since December, Treasury Secretary O'Neill has recommended that Congress pass legislation increasing the debt limit to $6.7 trillion, but Congress has resisted. The fiscal year 2002 supplemental spending bill, currently being completed by the House Appropriations Committee, could now be used as the vehicle for increasing the debt limit.

After exercising stopgap measures to keep the national debt under the limit since April, the Treasury announced on May 15 that it would now be forced to move some $80 billion from the Federal Employees Retirement System interest-bearing account known as the G-Fund into non-interest bearing accounts.

...more...

[yellowcanine]

30. Someone needs to inform the snowman about the experience in Chile and

Great Britain with private accounts - then maybe he would understatnd.

[The_Casual_Observer]

32. would not affect benefits to retirees or near-retirees

Maybe many of us are someplace in between, and maybe we are sick of getting fucked over by these guys.

[brooklynite]

33. Someone should invite him to the Bank across the street

I understand they have these things called Savings Accounts and IRA's which ANYONE can invest in to build a better retirement for their future.

Now, as to investing funds taken out of the Social Security pool, causing the program's insolvency and/or a massive increase in the National Debt...yes I think I have heard a few complaints.

"For the life of me, I can't imagine why anybody would argue against young workers having the ability to invest and build a better retirement for their future," Snow said.

[MADem]

35. When does that guy ever look anything but badly hung over?

With absolutely NO proof, mind you, every time I see that guy I think he has a booze problem. He always looks way too rough....which would make him rather easily baffled, when ya think about it....