Bush's Failed Social Security Campaign Cost Taxpayers $2.8 Million

Congress Daily reports:

Congressional auditors have found that the Bush administration spent an excessive amount in 2005 on a failed campaign to privatize Social Security, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Democrats charged today. The committee released a report by GAO, dated Aug. 10, that says the administration spent at least $2.8 million promoting its Social Security plan. GAO said it does not know the real cost of the campaign because the White House did not fully cooperate with its auditors. House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Waxman did not respond to a request today for comment, but in an August 2005 letter requesting the GAO investigation, Waxman wrote: "There is a vital line between legitimately informing the public ... and commandeering the vast resources of the federal government to fund a political campaign for Social Security privatization."

A fact sheet released by the committee highlighted the campaign's cost to taxpayers and the White House's limited cooperation. GAO found President Bush, Vice President Cheney and more than 100 officials from the White House and agencies ... including the Social Security Administration, Treasury, HHS and Labor departments -- spent $1.6 million on 228 public events intended to build public support for privatization. Most costs were for travel. Other expenses included $200,000 for the Treasury Department to create a Social Security Information Center and a Web site promoting the administration plan. Bush, fresh from his 2004 re-election victory, launched the campaign in his 2005 State of the Union address. Afterward, then-Treasury Secretary John Snow kicked off a "60 Stops in 60 Days" tour consisting of well-publicized town hall meetings that ultimately failed to generate much interest in changing Social Security in Congress, even among key Republican lawmakers.

Read the full story here.

Comments

[lookingAhead]

09:56 AM on 09/09/2007

With all the monies they waste just in PR they could save SS and fully fund education. These crooks are the lowest of the low. 01.20.09 can not get here soon enough for me.

[daniel155]

11:28 AM on 09/09/2007

It would be nice if what you said was true but if will take much much more money than that.

[daniel155]

02:02 AM on 09/09/2007

Well you can criticize the Bush Social Security plan and the spending to promote it but it least he tried to tackle the problem of a systen that is not actuarily sound. It is a larger version of the pension problems faced by the big three auto manufacturers.

The silence is deafening from the current crop of candidates on the Social Security issue.

[ohiomark]

10:10 AM on 09/09/2007

Very true, the Democrats especially have NO plan for SS, which will collapse in on itself in 25 years if nothing is done.

You just know that the only answer the Dems will have to bail it out is RAISE TAXES. That's their answer for everything.

[BreadandRoses]

12:40 PM on 09/09/2007

You seem to work very hard at looking unintelligent.

[anastasiabeaverhousen]

09:56 PM on 09/08/2007

It would be news is bush SUCCEEDED at something, not that he has FAILED miserably at yet another venture - regardless of who funded it. He is a world-class failure.

If the politicians would just stop stealing from social security so they don't have to show it as a debt on the balance sheet, we would be MILES ahead.

That has been going on for years - bush isn't smart enough to invent it - only to copy it.

[rras]

09:02 PM on 09/08/2007

We could have put that money to better use just sticking it into the Social Security Fund.
I wish I could have known where they held these well-publicized town hall meetings. What would you bet that most of them were held in the plush club houses of some exclusive Country Clubs. Big business is out to ruin Social Security because they know that the day is coming that it will need to be funded fairly.

[NoahVail]

01:59 AM on 09/08/2007

I am shocked and in awe. You mean this resident of the White House would use government resources to promote a partisan political agenda?

I am sure he was just trying to educate the US population. Perhaps they should just print up some signs and place them in prominent places:

WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

[cityspeak]

12:04 AM on 09/08/2007

His failed wars has cost us a trillion dollars, over 3,700 dead soldiers, 650,000 dead Iraqis, Tens of thousands maimed, and the distrust of the rest of the world.

2. something million? Cheap.

And hey can I not comply with a federal inquiry without any consequences? Who knew that the legal branch of our government consisted of nothing but hot air. Just a bunch of guys standing around making demands, being ignored and responding with a "Well, I never!"

Bush and Co. are criminals and Waxman and Co. are completely toothless. This is the state of our country in 2007. Completely bought and sold with the poorest and the middle picking up the tab in blood, sweat and tears.

Hey Waxman why not make a conviction? All these investigations without any convictions are beginning to sound like a bad neverending joke.

[accountability]

06:52 PM on 09/07/2007

"the administration spent at least $2.8 million promoting its [failed] Social Security plan."

Consider it a bargain. It is the least amount he has wasted on anything would be my bet.
And it would have cost us much more if he suceeded, not to mention throwing everything into disarray and turmoil for the next legitimate President to have to deal with.

Its what he does.

GAO said it does not know the real cost of the campaign because the White House did not fully cooperate with its auditors.

surprise, surprise.

[gcallaghan]

08:40 PM on 09/07/2007

Indeed, even at 10 times the stated amount we got off cheaply. That is what this asshole's administration is like: we're past the point of trying to assess the damage he's wrought, we're instead focused on how much worse it could have been had he gotten his way.

[rcampbell]

05:29 PM on 09/08/2007

accountability and gcallaghan hit it on the head.

[Jeff1958]

05:35 PM on 09/07/2007

Bush's idea to transfer wealth from the middle class to the wealthiest and to corporations(which is exactly what this SS plan was all about) was an abortion from the onset. It would have TOTALLY screwed people nearing retirement age and those contributing to the existing system for decades.

Here's a great way to shore up Social Security: increase to cutoff from $94,000 to $10,000,000. Why should someone making $94 grand pay around 7% and someone making $10 million pay 0.07% ? Why does a max even exist at all. It's just another way that the poor and middle class pay relatively more taxes (as a percent of their income) compared to the wealthy.

[daniel155]

02:05 AM on 09/09/2007

That would raise less revenue than you think because as incomes rise, less money is being made from wages which are subject to the FICA tax and more is being made from other sources that aren't subject to the FICA tax.

[getoffmedz]

05:28 PM on 09/07/2007

Bush = Fails.

Simple as that.

It's official.