Oct 5, 2006 2 min read

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld admitted, “We cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions.” That’s $8,000 for every person in the U.S. that the Pentagon has lost. Our government’s wasteful spending includes awarding no-bid contracts to Vice President Dick Cheney’s former company, Haliburton, even after the Defense Department audit said they overcharged $61 million. Our tax money was used to buy hundreds of rolls of duct tape for $60 each and soda for $45 a case. Billions of taxpayers dollars sent to Iraq can’t be accounted for.

Privatization of Social Security would gamble away the “security” of Social Security by exposing it to the risks of stock markets. Privatization will drain money from the Social Security system and cut Social Security’s guaranteed benefits. This will hurt the people and enrich Wall Street financial houses. People will have no guaranteed income and no protection against inflation.

The government must stop spending our Social Security taxes on unrelated programs. When money is borrowed from the Social Security Trust Fund, it must be paid back, just as other debts are paid. All we need for Social Security to continue paying the benefits we are entitled to, is for the government to be accountable for its use of our money.

We need representatives who will work for the needs of the people instead of for their corporate donors. Democrats Tony Barr and Bob Casey have pledged to strengthen and secure Social Security, not cut the benefits we have earned, as their opponents’ plans to privatize would do.

Protect our future with your vote.

Karen Giles

Blue Knob