A Non-Mosque Post

I have to admit I've been hitting the subject of the "Ground Zero" Mosque pretty hard lately (and may return to it later on today), but for a change of pace let's call John Stossel a liar.

Stossel's latest article is about privitizing Social Security; he notes accurately that the public taste for this idea is pertty low. But then he has to lie in order to make his case.

First, there never has been a trust fund! Your FICA tax payments were not saved or invested. Social Security transferred them to current retirees. Second, in return for IOUs, Congress raided Social Security's budget surplus every year and spent like any other tax revenue.

Those IOUs are what most of us call US Treasuries, one of the most secure investments on the planet. It's possible that Stossel doesn't in fact know this; he imagines the Social Security office recieving scribbled IOUs from congress. If he doesn't know this though, that shows a certain amount of stupidity or lack of care. I think he probably does know it, but chooses to fudge the truth anyway.