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….which is always to be expected by this billionaire conservative moron who wishes to kill off what is left of the middle class and the poor, to an extent. He and his brother would still need the poor workers in America to keep their company going.
Anyway, the asshat did an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal which is basically his instructions to the lesser equals in the land. His wish list of things that American companies should do with the help of the congress, GOP governors, and whatever.
Anonymous had a few things to say about Koch’s number crunching and the sources which he used.
First Koch:
Years of tremendous overspending by federal, state and local governments have brought us face-to-face with an economic crisis. Federal spending will total at least $3.8 trillion this year—double what it was 10 years ago. And unlike in 2001, when there was a small federal surplus, this year's projected budget deficit is more than $1.6 trillion.
I take it that Koch does not care for the help that government provides for the retired and the poor of America. Let’s not forget the medically needy either.
For many years, I, my family and our company have contributed to a variety of intellectual and political causes working to solve these problems. Because of our activism, we've been vilified by various groups. Despite this criticism, we're determined to keep contributing and standing up for those politicians, like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who are taking these challenges seriously.
Koch’s way of saying that that his familia has done its best to keep the American worker down and that thanks to Republican governors like Scott Walker, the familia can march forward towards victory over the lesser classes. The Koch clan would be more than happy to roll workers rights back a hundred years or so. Of course, all of that sacrifice that the Koch ilk are always spouting off about will not apply to the rich and infamous, only to you and I.
I'm very concerned with numbers and economics, personally, so let's evaluate some of the claims half of the dynamic duo has put into his op-ed:
Koch: "Federal data indicate how urgently we need reform: The unfunded liabilities of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid already exceed $106 trillion."
I haven't the slightest what "federal data" indicates anything in the slightest. However, I do know of a National Center for Policy Analysis article claiming this:
NCPA: "The 2009 Social Security and Medicare Trustees Reports show the combined unfunded liability of these two programs has reached nearly $107 trillion in today's dollars! That is about seven times the size of the U.S. economy and 10 times the size of the outstanding national debt." http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba662
So, what does the 2009 Social Security and Medicare Trustees Report actually say? Well, it says the unfunded liability is only $5.3 trillion:
Trustees Report: "For the 75-year projection period, the actuarial deficit is 2.00 percent of taxable payroll, 0.30 percentage point larger than in last year’s report. The open group unfunded obligation for OASDI over the 75-year period is $5.3 trillion in present value, and is $0.9 trillion more than the measured level of a year ago."
Furthermore, the Trustees Report notes that even if you extend the horizon out to infinity, the deficit is only $15.1 trillion:
Trustees Report: "The values in table IV.B6 indicate that extending the calculations beyond 2083 adds $9.9 ($15.1 - $5.3) trillion in present value to the amount of the unfunded obligation estimated through 2083. That is, over the infinite horizon, the OASDI open group unfunded obligation is projected to be $15.1 trillion."
And the final kicker? The report notes that the rather large jump in unfunded liability occurred largely because of the economic downturn: more
