The Looting of Social Security: How the Government is Draining America's Retirement Account [Paperback]

Ph.D. Allen W. Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 19, 2003

Every cent generated by the 1983 Social Security tax increase—money ostensibly earmarked and saved for the retirement of the baby-boom generation—is gone, spent by our government. But most Americans are ignorant of the crime. The emptying of the Social Security Trust Fund is the greatest fraud ever perpetrated on the American public, and acclaimed author and economist Allen W. Smith reveals how George W. Bush and Congress are pulling it off. While George W. Bush has repeatedly condemned “corporate wrongdoers,” he is guilty of fiscal mismanagement and outright deception that makes Enron and WorldCom pale in comparison. Smith explains the history of Social Security from its inception in 1935 to the present, including the enactment of the 1983 Social Security tax increase. Then, step by appalling step, he details how the government’s promise to the American people—a pledge to never spend the Social Security funds—was broken by every succeeding administration. Sadly, The Looting of Social Security quite simply reveals how George W. Bush has stolen more than $3 trillion of Social Security money to fund tax cuts for wealthy Americans while robbing many of their hard earned money and their rights.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Smith, a retired economics professor, presents what is at heart a straightforward grievance: for more than a decade, political leaders from both parties have used various accounting tricks to shift the Social Security surplus into the general budget, in violation of federal law, and have lied about the nation's financial status, with the probable result, Smith says, that they'll run Social Security into the ground by 2018. He propounds every point of that grievance over and over, even quoting the same speeches in separate chapters. The text is further padded by long excerpts from the Congressional Record, an entire AP dispatch about Smith's exploits driving around Florida in a "debtmobile" covered in slogans, even the complete transcript of a CNN appearance to promote his previous book (The Alleged Budget Surplus). Because he's so hopping mad, everything's a matter of hyperbole. Former president George Bush pursued "one of the most irresponsible fiscal policies in the nation's history," while Bill Clinton's "outrageous deliberate lie" about budget surplus projections was his "greatest sin," and after the current President Bush's first State of the Union address, "perhaps never before in American history had the people been played for such fools." The argument is also slightly undermined by a somewhat unsteady analysis of Bush's political motivations and persistently jarring shifts in tone. Despite the problems in delivery, one gets the sense Smith knows what he's talking about; it's unfortunate that with so much at stake, the book's weaknesses may reduce him to a voice in the wilderness.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Smith, an outspoken advocate of economic education, has written a scathing account of massive fraud on the part of our nation's leaders, who have plundered every cent of the Social Security Trust Fund surplus that was specifically earmarked for the retirement of baby boomers. Social Security funds were never intended for general spending, but huge tax cuts under Reagan ballooned the deficit, forcing the government to "borrow" from the trust fund. Both George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton spent the entire trust-fund balance on government programs, and even though Clinton's deficit-reduction program was a great success, he created the great "budget surplus" myth by adding Social Security funds to the general budget calculation. According to Smith, however, no president has been as fiscally irresponsible as George W. Bush, who, despite the warnings of numerous economists, deceived the American people into accepting a $1.3 trillion tax cut that favors the wealthy and threatens to deprive millions of retirees of their benefits in the coming years. David Siegfried
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf; 1st Carroll & Graf Trade Pbk. Ed edition (November 19, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786712813
• ISBN-13: 978-0786712816
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,510,516 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A history of economic malpractice, December 3, 2003

By 

John C. Landon "nemonemini" (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Looting of Social Security: How the Government is Draining America's Retirement Account (Paperback)

It is very difficult to navigate toward clarity on economic issues based on the information given in the media. Books recounting the full picture in slow motion have an advantage over the soundbite versions that clearly don't sink in. Disinformation tends to succeed, and as the author points out, basic economic education being a scarce commodity, even journalists and politicians themselves are confused, an important point to remember. It's a fact of life that even a well-educated person must reckon with his proneness to being disinformed and this appalling short account of history of the Social Security crisis since 1983 is a more than useful expose of the sorry history here.
Beyond that tale which has been told before, mostly in vain, it is also a cutting expose of the current monumental swindle going on with the Bush manipulations of the budget and deficit, also with a clear fingerpointing at the blunder/lie behind Clinton's myth of the budget surplus that handed the Bush gang a golden opportunity to front their conservative sabotage. Clinton's dose of sanity rescuing the system from the Reagon/Bush disaster got frittered away in one stroke by the new round of the voodoo artists, right in front of our eyes. The sheer impudent and premeditated brazenness of the tactics takes one's breath away, and it is no surprise we have been treated to near flood of books about the Bush Lies. The saddest thing is that voters can't grasp their own self-interest.
It is good that while partisan in one way the author clearly traces the onset of 'voodoo economics' as far back as the Johnson presidency, and in telling the whole history of this and Reaganomics he brings out something we don't always notice, that competent economists have documented in some alarm every stage of the whole business, only to be shunted aside by presidents listening only to their political advisers.
The portrait of the future of Social Security and the future deficit is very alarming and one is left baffled at these politicians in their malevolence. A contract with America ought to read 'a contract on America' as in mafia hit language.
The book is slightly repetitive, perhaps written in a hurry, but very much worth reading. In most fields malpractice is an indictable offense. Apparently presidents are to be an exception. Enough's enough.

13 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The truth hurts?, April 16, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Looting of Social Security: How the Government is Draining America's Retirement Account (Paperback)

Smith is absolutely correct in his main contention, which is that Bush II paid for his tax cuts by using the Social Security surplus. This is all the more appalling when you consider that Social Security is a regressive tax (it only applies to the first $85,000 of everyone's income, including Bill Gates), while the Bush II tax cuts mostly benefit the rich. David Cay Johnston makes a similar point in his excellent book, Perfectly Legal. And can anyone doubt that the right wing will use this to bolster its claims that Social Security is "broke," paving the way for privatization or other ways to dismantle it?
I see from reviews here that the freeper attack dogs are nervous about this line of argument. Sadly, their (his?) understanding of economics does not match their (his or her?) passion. Yo, Reader from California: anyone who reads reviews for a book such as this knows that it's not the "Democrats' fault" that the Reagan and Bush II tax cuts led to deficits. Reagan wanted his huge increase in military spending, and Bush II enjoys a Republican House and Senate. And Micsca (are you the same person as "Reader" -- same state, same posting date, same dogma): your vaunted increase in tax revenues several years after the Reagan tax cuts was due merely to a growing population and workforce. Yet the tax cuts caused revenues to be lower than they would have been. Which Smith clearly explains and which you would know if you had actually read the book. Why bother to spin such nonsense to an educated audience? [Note -- the poster(s) referred to above appear(s) to have edited his(their) post to change the posting name and location.]
As for the rants about supply side economics, I have a degree from one of the 10 best graduate schools in this country, and supply side economics is dead. The only "data" showing that it works come from nordic countries that had marginal tax rates over 70% -- not our country at all.
Brookings and other economists have pointed out that the Bush tax cuts make up the same percent of our economy (GDP) as would be required to fix both Social Security and Medicare. Drag corporations back from their overseas tax havens (the 35% statutory rate is a joke), and where's the problem?
The book was a little repetitive, but I give it 5 stars because I revile these freeper "assassination" attempts.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Looting Social Security Money, February 25, 2011

By 

Jeffrey Ehlenfeld "Jeff" (Donna, TX 78537) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Looting of Social Security: How the Government Is Draining Americas Retirement Account (Paperback)

This book reveals how, since the 1983 "fix" of Social Security, a Social Security Trust Fund was created because of a significant raise in FICA taxes aimed at preparing Social Security for the retiring baby boomers. Instead the surplus money that started appearing in 1985 was immediately diverted to pay for tax cuts, that favored the wealthy, paid for unfunded wars and Medicare Part D, along with other government expenses. As the money was emptied special bonds which were basically government IOU's were put in the fund so that now all that remains are the IOU's that amount to approximately 2.5 trillion dollars not including the interest that the money would have earned.
This should be mandatory reading for all Americans especially now that Social Security is being threatened with massive cuts.