I guess he was just out for a drive and decided to stop in…at the Bureau of Public Debt in Parkersburg, W.Va. There, Bush posed for the cameras (Did someone invite the press?) next to a file cabinet that holds the $1.7 trillion in Treasury securities that make up the Social Security trust fund. He made a comment to the effect that the bonds were not "real assets." Later, in a speech at a nearby university, he said: "There is no trust fund. Just i.o.u.'s that I saw firsthand."
Some facts: Yes, real facts, not political agenda. Social Security takes in more money than it needs to pay current beneficiaries. The excess is invested in the Treasury securities that Mr. Bush was trashing. They carry the same legal and political obligations as all other forms of Treasury debt. And these securities have always been paid in full and on time. There are more than $2 trillion dollars worth of these same securities held by foreign nations. Would they be interested in knowing that the president thinks they are not “real assets”? Of course it doesn’t worry them…they know this is simply politics as usual. A photo op and a sound bite for Bush.
Bush wants Americans to believe that the trust fund is a joke. If that is true…if the trust fund really is a joke, then so is the full faith and credit of the United States.
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