Senate reveals ugly underside of the "nanny state"

By Chris Adamo

As the United States Senate continues relentlessly towards the goal of amnesty for illegal aliens, its political movers and shakers are illuminating the despicable realities behind the phony "compassion" of liberalism. In a stunning act of treachery against the American people, the Senate has set the stage to plunder America's social security system and give the spoils to illegal immigrants.

According to populist presidential "wannabe" John McCain (R.-AZ), illegals deserve access to the social security funds because they paid taxes. Yet nobody seems to know how much they paid, what percentage of their paychecks was withheld by the government, or how much more they have cost American society than they may have paid into the system.

The lingering myth that social programs exist for the "good of the people" has just been shredded by the proposed Senate action. Such programs were never devised to assist those in need, but rather for the political empowerment of the individuals dispensing the "benefits."

Although liberals in Congress wailed that President Bush's proposal to privatize a tiny portion of Social Security would bankrupt the system, they are now perfectly willing to give away an enormously larger portion of those funds to the millions of illegals working in the dark fringes of the U.S. economy.

In truth, liberal abhorrence for the privatization plan never had anything to do with a possible lack of funds. Furthermore, every privatization proposal offered by the White House ensured that sufficient funds would be available for those who opted to remain within the present system.

Rather, what the liberals could not stomach was the possibility that, by maintaining ownership of those funds, Americans might forestall congressional access to them. Had such been the case, no opportunity would exist by which the Senate could misuse the monies in this misbegotten attempt to curry favor and loyalty of the illegal population.

Worse yet, the far greater returns historically reaped from private investment would mean that average citizens might gain greater independence from the government trough. Hence they would realize that they had little further need for the benevolence from liberals.

The popular perception has been that Social Security constituted the "third rail" of politics, alluding to the idea that even barely brushing against it would be tantamount to committing political suicide. So, in comparison, the Senate action ought to equate to grabbing hold of that third rail, while standing knee-deep in water.

The fact that such Senate pandering might bankrupt the system sooner than is presently expected, is apparently a "yawner" to the left. This is strange, especially when considered in comparison to the hysterics with which every mouthpiece of the "nanny state" responded to the President's plan to bring fiscal sanity to the program through partial privatization. Yet this situation does not represent some incomprehensible dichotomy.

In truth, the present system is, by design, a scheme to maintain a mentality of dependence on government among America's seniors. Decimating the funds from within will not change this all-important status quo. And, by incorporating the twelve million illegals into the system, America's dependent (and thus compliant) class can be enlarged to a breathtaking degree.

Meanwhile, those gullible seniors who, on cue, expressed such vehement outrage at the possibility of privatization, and who insisted that all future generations of Americans be consigned to the same dismal system into which they have been sold, are relatively quiet as this theft of the funds is being perpetrated. Far from being mindful of how Social Security's Ponzi scheme actually works, they are content to be demagogued by the nightly news and other liberal institutions who presume to do their thinking for them.

Thus far, the liberal media has said little if anything of comparative alarm over the Senate plan. And, not surprisingly, other liberal institutions such as the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), who have historically engaged in a charade of support for the cause of senior citizens, are instead conducting their typical, clandestine advocacy of liberalism.

Here again, their rationale, while seeming totally contradictory on the surface, becomes entirely consistent when one considers where their real concerns and sympathies lie.

Hardly true to the notion of bettering the lot for seniors the AARP understands that its own fortunes rely on the size of its membership rolls. And any horde of new "dependents," regardless of the degree to which they constitute a drain on Americans, will nonetheless only increase those rolls.

Thus it should surprise no one that, far from seeking to secure the nation's borders and ensure America's security and stability as a haven for seniors, AARP has in fact supported pro-illegal organizations such as MALDEF, the "Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund," to which it has contributed thousands of dollars.

In this it shows itself to be virtually indistinguishable from every other liberal institution presumably dedicated to the plight of the downtrodden, but in reality only exploiting such people as a resource to further its acquisition of power.

Such outrageous betrayal of the American people by the "compassionate" members of the United States Senate (and virtually unopposed by the likes of the AARP) plainly illustrates the sinister mechanism fueling the massive growth of government in recent years. Furthermore, it could provide a backdrop against which President Bush might present his privatization plan with great success.

Unfortunately, having been absolutely on the wrong side of the illegal immigrant issue from almost his first day in office, the present situation provides the President with no such political leverage.

Thus Republicans once again cede the moral high ground, and in the process thoroughly undermine the conservative cause. And another golden opportunity to turn back the tide of liberalism is disgracefully squandered.

© Chris Adamo