Instead of hitting hard on the serious threat to Social Security and Medicare posed by Obama and Republican candidates, all who serve Wall Street, the military/security complex, and the Israel Lobby, Ron Paul has been positioned as the danger to Social Security and Medicare. This is an amazing strategic mistake by the Ron Paul campaign.
Ron Paul’s supporters are mainly among the young. The importance to them of Social Security and Medicare will not register for many years, but for the vast majority of the population Social Security and Medicare are essential for survival. A candidate who might destroy the scant economic protection the American elderly have is not positioned to win a presidential election.
Many libertarians regard Social Security and Medicare as welfare handouts and as Ponzi schemes, when in fact these programs are a form of private property. People pay for these programs all their working lives, just as they pay for private medical policies and private pension plans. Social Security and Medicare are contracts that government made with citizens. These contracts are as valid and enforceable as any other contracts. If Social Security and Medicare are in dire trouble, why is the government wasting trillions of dollars on the armaments industries and Israel’s territorial ambitions? Why isn’t this question the most important issue in the campaign?
Instead, after two massive stock market crashes and financial fraud, libertarians prattle on about privatizing Social Security. They speak about delaying the Social Security retirement age to 70 without any thought to what a person does who is retired by his employer at 65. An alternative group plan with Blue Cross Blue Shield Florida for a 64-year old woman has an $18,000 premium, large deductibles per medical issue, and a 20% co-pay. Even a person with private insurance faces potentially ruinous health care expenses.
Libertarians will not wait to think before announcing that private savings are funded but Social Security and Medicare are not. They are incorrect on both accounts.
Social Security and Medicare are funded with a payroll tax. It is true that the government has stolen the funds, spent them, and left non-marketable IOU’s in their place. But in our deregulated casino financial system the same thing happens to private holdings. Where is the money that individuals had in MF Global, Madoff, Enron, AIG and Worldcom? Can banks whose balance sheets are loaded with subprime derivatives make good on their depositors’ accounts? US Treasury bonds are part of most private pension plans.
The notion that free unregulated markets are totally trustworthy is the enormous mistake that former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan made, for which American and European peoples continue to pay. Libertarians endorse this fantastic mistake to the hilt.
Ron Paul is the only candidate for president who is committed to the Constitution. Without the Constitution we cease to have rights and become subjects of a police state. The only candidate who will bring back the Constitution cannot be elected because of the inflexibility and sectarianism of his base. There may be more worthy third party candidates, but they have no visibility. Ron Paul is visible, and the opportunity is going to waste.
During the past decade the Constitution lost its power. Today rights depend on the subjective opinion of the executive branch. This is tyranny. We should be unified in our opposition to tyranny.
excerpted from PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
