Social Security Problems

 

Having recently received answers from Texas Republican Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn to letters I sent on Social Security problems and possible solutions, I 

need to share this as to, "How Out of It They Are".

 

Neither Hutchison or Cornyn mention that the US Congress owes near $2 TRILLION in IOUs to the Social Security Trust Fund. Hutchison's states:

 

    "Although the Social Security Trust Fund is accumulating large annual surpluses, these surpluses are projected to end by 2018 as the Baby Boom generations reaches retirement age. By approximately 2040, the Social Security Trust Fund will be exhausted and the system will only be able to cover about 70 percent of promised benefits."

 

The truth is:

 

           There is no money in the fund, except the Congressional IOUs.


           No surplus money is going into the Trust Fund as the Congress is using these

           surpluses as General Revenue Funds.

 

           Ex-US Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan,  recently indicated that

           surpluses will run out as early as 2008.

 

           The 2040 date Hutchison uses is only realistic if Congress pays the $2 Trillion 

           owed in IOUs, plus any future surpluses they use as General Purpose Funds.  

 

These two Republican Senators manage our tax dollars. When asked about problems, 

their answers do not include all factors. This is unacceptable and they, along with colleagues doing the same, should be voted out of office. 

 

Respectfully.

 

Colonel Colin J. N. Chauret, USAF Retired

8506 Parthenon Place

Universal City, TX 78148

 

Secret Torture Prisons

 

Why is it that Congressional Republicans are more concerned over the "Intelligence Leak" about secret prisons established by this Republican Administration in Eastern European, Asia or African countries to torture detainees than the fact that they have been established? Why don't they understand Senator John McCain's stance against the torture of prisoners? Is it because a high majority of these Republican leaders have never been in the military and have done everything possible to avoid the Vietnam conflict? America's torture of prisoners puts us in the same category as our detestable enemies.  

 

Colonel Colin J. N. Chauret, USAF Retired

31 Years Service, WWII, Korea & Vietnam

8506 Parthenon PlaceUniversal City, TX 78148

 Cjnchauret@aol.com

 

 

 

 

 

Gasoline Prices

 

 

The price of gasoline has increased 20 cents a gallon to $2.60 for regular unleaded in the San Antonio, TX area in the past 7 to 10 days. We have seen the criminal profits major oil companies have made the past few years with no stopping it in sight. With having President Bush and Vice President Cheney, both Oil Barons, in charge of our energy program and a Republican controlled Congress right behind them, the American public will be bled to death. It does not stop at the gas pump. This increase in cost also is a big factor in the cost of most U.S. commodities. While I can well afford it, due to my income and the fact we drive very little, there are many Americans hurting, whose lively hood depend on the price of gasoline. There is a way to change the direction of this Republican fiasco and that is vote them out of office this fall election and demand President Bush and Vice President Cheney listen to the American public during the remaining time in office

 

 

Colonel Colin J. N. Chauret, USAF Retired

31 Years Service, WWII, Korea & Vietnam

8506 Parthenon PlaceUniversal City, TX 78148

 Cjnchauret@aol.com

 

 

TROOPS IN IRAQ

 

President Bush indicated in his White House News Conference on March 21, 2006 that our military forces may well remain in Iraq for years. I have a suggestion for early withdrawal, in that President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Karl Rove all be sent to Iraq to serve with the troops, rifle in hand, and see how long it takes for Bush to call withdrawal, especially with them the last to leave. It is a shame President Bush did not understand his father's position, in Gulf War One, in not invading Baghdad. It would stir up a hornet's nest among the Islamic world.   

 

Colonel Colin J. N. Chauret, USAF Retired

31 Years Service, WWII, Korea & Vietnam

8506 Parthenon PlaceUniversal City, TX 78148

 Cjnchauret@aol.com

 

 

 

Enough is Enough

 

 

President Bush has engaged this country in an unpopular preemptive war, ruined the good will of our allies, has the highest deficit spending in the history of our nation and outsourcing of good jobs. This is the legacy he is leaving our children to bare, war, hatred, never ending debt and lack of high paying jobs. With allowing the of management of our major sea ports to the Arab world, a possible high security risk, he is now telling the world we do not have the capability to manage our own sea ports. Enough is enough. When will the Congress have the intestinal fortitude to impeach George W, Bush?   

 

Respectfully,

 

Colonel Colin J. N. Chauret, USAF Retired

31 Years Active Duty, WWII, Korea & Vietnam 

8506 Parthenon Place, Universal City, TX 78148

 Cjncchauret@aol.com

 

 

Apathy in America's People, Politicians and News Media

                        (An  excerpt from a Mark Danner's Article)       

In the end, the Downing Street memo, and Americans' lack of interest in what it shows, has to do with a certain attitude about facts, or rather about where the line should be drawn between facts and political opinion. It calls to mind an interesting observation that an unnamed "senior advisor" to President Bush made to a New York Times Magazine reporter last fall:

"The aide said that guys like me [i.e., reporters and commentators] were 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.'"

Though this seems on its face to be a disquisition on religion and faith, it is of course an argument about power, and its influence on truth. Power, the argument runs, can shape truth: power, in the end, can determine reality, or at least the reality that most people accept  a critical point, for the administration has been singularly effective in its recognition that what is most politically important is not what readers of the New York Times believe but what most Americans are willing to believe. The last century's most innovative authority on power and truth, Joseph Goebbels, made the same point but rather more directly:

"There was no point in seeking to convert the intellectuals. For intellectuals would never be converted and would anyway always yield to the stronger, and this will always be 'the man in the street.' Arguments must therefore be crude, clear and forcible, and appeal to emotions and instincts, not the intellect. Truth was unimportant and entirely subordinate to tactics and psychology."

(The complete article can be reviewed by going to "Downing Street Memo" & clicking     on TomDispatch-Tomgram: Mark Danner on British Smoking-Gun Memo)

Respectfully,
Colonel Colin J. N. Chauret,
USAF Retired, 31 Years Service, WWII, Korea & Vietnam

Bush Asked to Explain UK War Memo

 

President Bush has failed to respond to the UK War Memo which puts him and his administration in an embarrassing position. He should explain, under oath, to the US Congress and the American public. Is it possible, he is hesitant in answering because he would have to tell the truth, that is; he did "cook the books" with intelligence about WMD to aid in his pre-emptive war against Iraq or does not want to commit perjury? This is an important issue. After all, we have had close to 1700 military killed, thousands more maimed for life, along with thousands of innocent Iraqis killed and maimed.   

 

For Verification of the issue, go to UK War Memo and Search.

 

Respectfully,

 

Colonel Colin J. N. Chauret, USAF Retired

31 year Military Service, WWII, Korea & Vietnam

8506 Parthenon Pl., Universal City, TX 78148

Cjnchauret@aol.com