FROSTPROOF, Fla., December 4, 2007—Presidents Bill Clinton and George W.

Bush have spent every dime of the surplus Social Security revenue flowing into the

Treasury during their terms in office,  according to economist Allen W. Smith, Ph.D. in

his new book, *Demystifying Economics: The Book That Makes Economics Accessible

to Everyone.  Smith points out that the 1983 legislation, which substantially raised

Social Security taxes, was designed specifically for the purpose of building up a surplus

in the Social Security trust fund in preparation for the staggering new obligations the

fund would face when the baby-boom generation begins retiring about 2010.  Instead,

Smith reports that the government began using the surplus to pay for other government

programs as soon as it first appeared in 1983, and it has continued to do so ever since. 

            Although the first President Bush and President Clinton both

violated the intent of the law in using Social Security revenue for non-

Social Security purposes, Smith makes a distinction between their

actions and those of President George W. Bush.  According to Smith,

 both George W. Bush and Al Gore entered into a new covenant with

 the American people when they both emphatically and unconditionally

pledged to end the looting of Social Security during the 2000

presidential campaign.  Gore promised to put every penny of Social

Security revenue into a “Social Security lockbox,” to be used for Social

 Security alone, and Bush pledged to do the same.  Even after becoming

 President, Smith says that Bush continued to insist that he would not

touch the surplus Social Security revenue.  In a speech on March 3,

 2001, Bush emphatically stated,

“We’re going to keep the promise of Social Security and keep the government from raiding the Social Security surplus.”

            Bush never rescinded that pledge to the American people,

Smith claims, but he has consciously and systematically used the Social

 Security surplus as a giant slush fund to help pay for his huge tax cuts

for the rich and the war in Iraq, among other things.  By early 2007,

the amount of money looted from the Social Security trust fund by the

 Bush administration had surpassed the $1 trillion mark, and Bush

continued to loot, and spend, Social Security money at the rate of $500

 million per day.  

            According to Smith, during his failed attempt to push through

his Social Security privatization plan in 2005, Bush’s frustration over

his inability to convince the American people that Social Security was in

 deep trouble led him to openly admit the role of his administration in

looting Social Security.  On Thursday, April 28, 2005, during a

nationally televised news conference, President Bush said,

“Our system is called pay as you go.  You pay into the system through

your payroll taxes and the government spends it. It spends the money

 on current retirees and with the money left over, it funds other

 programs.  And all that’s left behind is file cabinets full of IOUs.”

____________

 *Demystifying Economics, The Book That Makes Economics Accessible

to Everyone, Expanded Third Edition, Allen W. Smith, Ph.D.; Ironwood

Publications: LCCN  2007934821;  ISBN:  978-0-9770851-2-5; Pages:

 288, 6x9;   $26.95; Publication date: January 2008

 CONTACT:  Barbara Rugel, Marketing Director, Ironwood Publications; (800) 840-6812; ironwoodas@aol.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Allen W. Smith is Professor of Economics

 Emeritus, Eastern Illinois University.  He is the author of nume

rous other books including, The Looting of Social Security: How the

 Government is Draining America’s Retirement Account;  The Alleged

Budget Surplus, Social Security, and Voodoo Economics; and

Understanding Economics. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Indiana

 University.