19 thoughts on “Good Luck With That”

  1. And the Democrats wonder why they’re going to lose badly this November. I hope they keep putting bimbos out in front of the camera… to highlight how out of touch they are.

  6. See, its women like this that make me support bringing back lawful public slapping for offensive and rude statements.

  7. If this were actual journalism, an adult discussion would go beyond sound bites (it’s a digital world, shouldn’t it be bytes?) Speaking as adults is not something the demagogues and the dim bulbs of our media (both left, right and other) would ever allow.

  8. G’day,

    As an Australian I find criticisms of privatizing pension (Social Security) amusing. We have had something similar since the 1990s, and introduced by a leftest Labor government too. 9% (soon to increase to 12%) of everyone’s wages go into private superannuation funds , the Superannuation Guarantee. You are encouraged to make additional personal contributions too. Sure they took a hit in 2008 when the market crashed but rather then panic I *increased* my personal contributions . My view was the low share prices meant it was bargain time. Seems I guess well too my fund went up by over 7% last financial year. Even with the GFC my fund averaged over 3% over the last ten years, a lot better return then paying taxes thats for sure.

    ta

    Ralph

  9. Is that Rodney McKay?

    Just kidding. I like Ryan. Even more now that I see he shares my sarcastic sense of humor.

  10. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz was a student (without the Schultz part) at the University of Florida at the same time I was. I remember her being involved with student government there, and she struck me as the type who “just knew” they have to go into politics. Not particularly impressive two and a half decades ago, even less so now.

  12. You know, the other thing that bothers me here is that Ryan essentially concedes the issue of the “risky” nature of “putting Social Security money into the stock market.” I think he should have taken the bull by the horns, thus:

    As opposed to what, Debbie? Right now, Americans pay 14% or 1/7 of their gross pay into Social Security and Medicare. And they expect to work for 45 years after college, from age 22 to age 67, and then retire and live another 15 years, or 1/3 of their adult life, on savings and Social Security, with Medicare picking up the health-care tab.

    That is, the current system is apparently based on the notion that you can live 1/3 of your adult life on 1/7 of your lifetime earnings. That math doesn’t add up, Deb. Any sixth-grader could see it.

    The only way to make it add up is to not to merely save that money but to invest it, lend it as capital to some clever scheme, so that 1/7 of your earnings invested while young can pay you much more than that — possibly as much as 1/3 of your earnings! — when you’re old.

    But all investment involves risk. That’s why you get more money back than you put in: you’re being paid to take the risk of not being paid back at all. That’s what interest means. So if the only way to make the math add up is for Americans to invest their retirement savings — to necessarily take some risks with it — who should be deciding how much and what kind of risk to take? The government? Salaried employees with nothing to lose but other people’s money? Or the folks whose money it actually is? That’s the moral and practical basis of privatization.

    And, if it comes to that, what’s wrong with investing that saved money in the stock market? You’re talking about investing it in American businesses. American entrepreneurs and American workers, American ideas. Got a better idea? Should we buy Chinese bonds instead? Real estate in Malaysia? Plant it in the back garden and see if a money tree sprouts?

    I realize this concedes the illusion that SS/Medicare is a savings scheme rather than a Ponzi paygo scheme, but I think it would be worth it to demonstrate to the twisty fools that even on their own assumptions, their vision is bankrupt, so to speak.

  13. Carl Pham Says: “I think Wasserman-Schultz has a secret longing to be tied up and spanked.”

    I will perform the deed

  14. I’ve noticed that women, and some men with higher pitched voices, when trying to be express authority while talking, over enunciate while trying to unnaturally deepen their voices. And this effect is what you get.

  16. She also recently showed unusual bravery in the face of a cancer diagnosis which resulted in seven major surgeries — you can read about the details on the web. In a situation where many people would shut down and turn inward, she kept on working hard. No one who watched her peppy TV interviews and none of her colleagues in congress even knew that she was fighting cancer until she chose to reveal it a year later. In contrast to the crudeness from the peanut gallery here, she won the admiration of her political opponents in Congress.

  17. Sheesh. “I’m a victim, and thus all criticism is either racist, bigoted or flat eeevil.”

    Being stoic is a plus, I’ll give the kudos I didn’t hear much of for Tony Snow. But being stoic doesn’t increase brain capacity or impute knowledge in fields one has never studied in the slightest.

  18. I don’t know who you are quotiing — she never said that.

    My comment was intended only to counter comments about her appearence and voice — we should all hope to look and sound so healthy if we are stricken. Obviously my comment and the superficial comments I wanted to counter all have nothing to do with the merits of the policy argument.

  19. Until about 60 years ago, you worked until you died, unless you were very, very wealthy. I say we go back to that.

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