It’s Your Money
I: “A lot of people in America think there is a trust that we take your money in payroll taxes and then we hold it for you and then when you retire, we give it back to you,” Bush said in a speech at the University of West Virginia at Parkersburg.
“But that’s not the way it works,” Bush said. “There is no trust `fund’ just IOUs that I saw firsthand,” Bush said.
“This is what exists,” Bush said, illustrating his point that the promise of future Social Security benefits are simply stashed in a file.
Is that not enough?
A $1.7 TRILLION Treasury Bond.
The W says no. “Imagine,” Bush said in his speech. “The retirement security for future generations is sitting in a filing cabinet. It’s time to strengthen and modernize Social Security for future generations with growing assets that you can control that you call your own — assets that the government can’t take away.”
……………
II: Peter DeFazio, D of Oregon: “The President said, ‘There is no trust fund.’ And then he went on to suggest that our Nation might not honor its debt to Social Security. This is what the President said does not exist.” (I’m assuming he held up a visual aid at this point.)
“Let me read from this. This is a Social Security Trust Fund bond, considered the best investments in the world, U.S. Treasury Bond. This is the most privileged of Treasury bonds issued to Social Security, redeemable at any time at full face value, unlike any other bond that they issue. These are the most privileged of their bonds. The President says it is nothing but an IOU. Well, here is what it says: ‘This bond is incontestable in the hands of the Federal Old Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund. The bond is supported by the full faith and credit of the United States. And the United States is pledged to the payment of the bond with respect to both principal and interest.’
“The President questions that?”
III: Perhaps they could invest the social security funds like so:
Since 1998, Ohio has invested millions of dollars in the unregulated world of rare coins, buying nickels, dimes, and pennies.
Controlling the money for the state? Prominent local Republican and coin dealer Tom Noe, whose firm made more than $1 million off the deal last year alone.
The agreement to invest the money in rare coins is rare itself: The Blade could find no other instance of a state government investing in a rare coin fund. Neither the state nor Mr. Noe could provide one.
“I don’t think I’d be excited to invest in rare coins,” Vermont Treasurer Mike Ablowich said. “It’s a little unusual.”
The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation has continued to be the sole investor in Mr. Noe’s Capital Coin funds despite strong concerns raised by an auditor with the bureau about possible conflicts of interest and whether the state’s millions were adequately protected.
And the state has maintained its stake in Capital Coin despite documented problems:
Two coins worth roughly $300,000 were lost in the mail in 2003.
The firm has written off $850,000 in debt over the last three years to cover a failed business relationship.
Mr. Noe has loaned some of the state’s money to a local real estate business that buys and sells central-city homes. A state auditor could not find documents to prove if the loans were sufficiently covered by the value of real estate that a Capital Coin subsidiary held as collateral.
Since the state first ventured into rare coins, Capital Coin has split $12.9 million in profits with the state, with Capital Coin keeping 20 percent, or nearly $2.6 million.
IV: Rare coins… perhaps it’s best to invest in Rob Liefeld?