Stupid Is

As stupid does

During the last few weeks I have been thinking about instituting a stupidity index but I haven't decided just how to go about it. One of my favorite columnist, in a paper I read several times a week, believes that most people are either uninformed or misinformed but isn't that caused by the smoke screen thrown up by the politicians (collectively) which is swallowed, hook, line and sinker, by the majority of the news readers (as opposed by news people). Where, then, to start. As for me, I know I do many stupid things, some out of ignorance (just not knowing any better) but others are from not really thinking through whatever I am doing or saying.
In that latter category I would list most of the politicians seen on television. As a group, most of them don't want to talk about the important issues, they just want to talk around them. I'm sure most of you have heard at least one version of this old adage; "It is better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you are stupid than to open it and erase all doubt". So, why do so many politicians love the cameras?

Several weeks ago we wrote to our Representative and one of our Senators about Social Security and how it relates to the budget but, as yet, we have received no reply. In the last two weeks we have e-mailed our other Senator three time about the same subject and received two form letters in reply which did not even attempt to address our concerns about Social Security. We have, at this writing, received no answer to that third e-mail. Our questions were quite simple; "Why do most politicians and newspeople claim that Social Security and Medicare must be cut because those two, so called, entitlements are taking up the largest part of the budget even though they are not even part of the budget". [See earlier posting] Social Security and Medicare are still being paid out of the "Social Security Trust Fund" which, in turn, is still funded by the FICA (payroll) taxes. Is that just the way they (politicians) are or do they have to go to school to learn how to answer a question with a question or non-answer?

If I remember correctly I wrote in an earlier posting that most people in Washington and New York appeared to be either brain washed, didn't have a brain to be washed or were trying to brain wash the rest of us. I didn't claim to know which one it was then and I still don't but I suspect it to be the last of the three. At this time the "Tea Partiers" are talking a good fight but will that translate into action when the going gets tough (rough) - and it will?

Even Rand Paul, "The Tea Party's Tea Partier", on Fox News Sunday (2-27-11) told Chris Wallace that Social Security must be changed, raise retirement age for future retirees under 55 years of age at this time, or in four or five years it would be consuming most of the budget with nothing left for other programs. Basically that is not true. You can change the retirement age today to 70 years of age for everyone under 55 years of age and it would not change the budget in any way. It would shore up Social Security and Medicare for future generations, and that would be great, but the (so-called) problem with Social Security and the budget is that the two and a half trillion dollars in IOUs in the "Social Security Trust Fund" will have to be borrowed, as needed, to pay benefits to retirees and for Medicare claims. Borrowing money to buy back those IOUs is what will affect the National debt but that still won't add to the budget simply because Social Security is not (by Law) part of the budget. Blowing smoke again. That borrowing more money to pay back Payroll tax money already spent is what the politicians don't want us to know. Just bame all the problems on us old fogies, never taking any blame upon themselves. We have very few courses of redress when even the news media believes their double-speak.

What I am asking is that you don't let their smoke screen blind you to what they are doing in Washington with the help of the media. I still haven't decided how to institute that stupidity index, maybe next time. Thanks for your time and input. Stay tuned. - William