Amid tough competition from his corporate media colleagues, Meet the Press host David Gregory has stood out as a journalist who has consistently misinformed the public about the impact of Social Security and other entitlement programs on the deficit. To find out how he’s been wrong and to tell him to correct his errors, see FAIR latest Action Alert.
Please use the comments thread of this blog post to leave copies of your messages, or to discuss the alert.
Dear Mr. David Gregory:
Stop misleading the public by blaming Social Security and Medicare for the budget deficits. You are not stating facts, but your own opinion.
The deficit spending is a function mostly of all the money spent on wars. Also, if the richest 2% and the corporations paid taxes at the same level as was paid in the 60s, there would be no deficit.
What does the American public have to do to get the mainstream media to talk about the staggering costs of wars and the fact that companies like GE don’t pay ANY taxes? Is it part of your job Mr. Gregory to protect the corporatocracy and the wealthy, while trowing the most vulnerable members of our society under the bus? Would GE fire you if you told the truth for once?
By the way, taking care of the weak and the old is not and should never be called “entitlements” — they are rights. Human rights that are guaranteed under the UN Declaration of Human Rights.
Pray that none of your family members ever gets sick with some deadly disease when they are old and disabled and have to make a choice between whether to eat or getting treatment for their medical issues. This is not an entitlement. It is the American people’s right, particularly those who have paid taxes all their lives, to be covered for basic human necessities when they get too old to work or become ill.
Sincerely,
M. Chantal Laurent
cc: FAIR
Perhaps what one should say when they are talking about reforming the Social Security and Medicare entitlements is that there is a need to remove people from social security that have never paid into the system. This would include illegal aliens, and even legal aliens to our county who somehow have managed to get themselves paid by a system they are not entitled to. Unless you can explain how these people are entitled to the benefits?
The same goes for Medicare. If there are people receiving Medicare benefits that have not paid into the system or are fully entitled to the benefits, then they need to be removed. Unnecessary doctor visits also need to be looked at for our elderly, which could reduce the cost of Medicare without affecting the quality of service.
There needs to be some sort of reform to Entitlements such as welfare also, so that we no longer create lifetime recipients who are totally dependent on the government for their existance.
Every time one hears that there is going to be Entitlement reform, they automatically assume (incorrectly) that the republicans want to reduce our granny’s monthly checks from a system she worked a lifetime to pay into and then kill her early by taking away her medicare. This is not the case at all and is a scare tactic used quite readily by the deomcrats. I’m sick and tired of the scare tactics!
Dick Gregory,
I am astounded just how colosally wrong you are most of the time on the issues of the day, but in particular, when you keep driving home the false notion of what drives the US deficits and debt, by saying it is entitlements like Social Security and Medicare, you do a tremendous disservice to your viewers. Do you not bother to find evidence for your assertions? And when you speak of the American people as “knowing” that these two programs are the main culprits of the US debt, do you not look at the latest polls and why do you continue to throw out ill informed statements as fact without any evidence to back them up? Like the notion that since the 1960’s these programs have been a “ticking time bomb?” Have you no journalistic integrity at all, that you could make such misleading statements so frequently as if they are established facts regarding these successful programs. Do you have no knowledge of these programs, of where their funds come from? I used to be a fan when Tim Russert was the host of Meet the Press, and when you took that spot after his untimely death I wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt, but having done so, you are no Tim Russert, and in fact, you are so incredibly wrong so often that you are worse than someone like Alex Jones, the conspiracy nut, at least you know he is plainly a nutjob, but you, you try to maintain a facade of objectivity, but you fail miserably. Go back to school and learn what journalistic integrity means, for at present, you have none, and you do a disservice to those who assume you speak the truth. You are worse than an outright liar, you are the Trojan horse of competent journalism whose goal seems to be to distort and destroy truth.
“The press lives by disclosures making them the common property of the nation; obtaining the earliest and most correct intelligence of the events of the time, that is the goal. For us, with whom publicity and truth are the air and light of existence, there can be no greater disgrace than to recoil from the frank and accurate disclosure of facts as they are. We are bound to tell the truth as we find it, without fear of consequences ___to lend no convenient shelter to acts of injustice and oppression, but to consign them at once to the judgment of the world.” quote by Robert Lowe of the London Times in 1851.
My, how the press has changed and is becoming more and more degenerate by folks like you.
K Hodges,
You are as bad as Gregory, you’re both on the same page of distortion. Where are the facts that undocumented workers are getting something they are not entitled to? Do you not realize that there are a great many more of these workers who pay SS, but never get benefits? Did that slip your mind or are you just a know nothing Tea bagger? And the folks who are in this country for whatever reason, when they get sick, what would you have them do? DIE? And Georgia just passed a law that villified these undocumented workers, and as a result the farmers who were employing these folks are left with their crops rotting in the field, because the law removed them, and created an agricultural calamity losing for the farmers millions of dollars. Your comments are off base and ignorant, in the sense that you are ignoring a large portion of the facts surrounding the issues.
Welfare was reformed in the late 90’s and has a limit for benefits already. You need to keep your mouth shut if you do not know what you are talking about, like now. As I said, you and Gregory are on the same page of distorting the facts. Medicare and SS has been changed many many times. And the 2012 budget by Ryan would make Medicare be paid for by the ones who can least afford it, and push these folks into a for profit system that doesn’t want them.
The facts are that these programs are used by folks who did not pay into them, but their parents did, and the programs were set up to help folks, the less fortunate who may not have paid into the system. What would you do with these folks, throw them into the street?
You are plainly ill-informed.
Mr. Gregory,
Please have your staff do a serious budget analysis of where the debt problems arise. This may be beyond their abilities given the continuous errors of facts. I would hope you would hire an historical economist who will provide you with the hard numbers showing where the debt /deficit comes from.
Do you ever consider what Murrow or Cronkite might say about your reporting accuracy / editorial comments presented as news? I do believe the majority of “journalists” are being talking heads and not presenting unbiased stories answering the questions: who, what, when, where, WHY and HOW.
As a retired teacher, I understand general public criticism of an profession. However, when teaching economics to high school seniors, my students did know where to find unbiased, economic sources to collect facts when evaluating an issue.
David Gregory – stop misinforming viewers about the main causes of the federal deficit–and the solutions the public supports.
Medicare and Social Security have dedicated payroll taxes and contribute NOT ONE PENNY to the federal deficit.
The American people want to tax the richest and draw down the military to attack the deficit. The latest CNN poll found that 87 percent of respondents came out against cutting Medicare in order to reduce the deficit–a position shared by 90 percent of Democrats and 85 percent of both Republicans and independents. With Social Security, 84 percent of all respondents opposed cuts. What’s “ludicrous” is your contention that there’s widespread support for cutting entitlements.
A recent poll by your own network found that even when given the choice between failing to reach an agreement on the debt ceiling and making cuts to Social Security and Medicare, only 38 percent of people surveyed thought Democrats should agree to cutting those entitlement programs (NBC/Wall Street Journal, 7/14-17/11.
What kind of journalist are you? Get real, Mr Gregory.
Aug. 2, 2011
Dear Mr. Gregory:
Whilst I missed the July 31″episode” of Meet the Press, I am nonetheless calling you out for making some false assertions. Not just near-factual assertions, but downright false ones.
There is absolutely no evidence to support your assertion that “entitlement spending” has been a “ticking time bomb since the 1960s” and is “what really drives the debt.” Social Security and Medicare have their own budgets and are supported by dedicated payroll taxes. Each has amassed massive surpluses over the past two decades, which they have loaned to the Treasury by buying U.S. government bonds. So in most of the time frame you were talking about, entitlements have not contributed to the deficit at all, but rather have helped pay for it.
Isn’t it high time that you had someone like Senator Bernie Sanders on the show to discuss issues that you keep getting confused over. I saw a few short clips of the good Senator from Vermont, and he straightened me right around. Can you tell me why I haven’t seen the Honorable Sanders on your show? I await a response. Feel free to use my email address.
I would prefer that you post my comments as CardinalBiggles99 than yer using my real name.
The facts about Social Security are clear.
1. It does not currently contribute to the deficit because it takes in more money than in pays out — period – it is self supporting
2. It’s long term fiinancial problems are trivial to solve — simply let the rich pay payroll taxes on a higher percentage of their income. In fact, EVERYONE should pay taxes on the same percentage of their income. Since folks earning less than $103,000 pay payroll taxes on 100% of their income, so should folks who earn about this — for whom it is easier to do so anyway.
So Social Security does not need to be part of the deficit discussion. Medicare Park D and Medicare Advantage Plans — big George Bush give aways to Pharma etc, ye.
We desparately need the media to really inform the public — not to pick up the talking points and even more importantly, the distoring language of the Republican Party.
To David Gregory:
Your assertion that what you call “entitlement spending” is “what really drives the debt” is completely false. You are either deliberately lying (which I can only assume) or profoundly ignorant of the subjects you discuss. I suggest you take a leave of absence and try to familiarize yourself with some of the basic facts of the contemporary American economy, such as the impact of the Bush tax cuts, which now account for more that a quarter of the Federal deficit. Better yet, find yourself another occupation altogether.
Dear Mr. Gregory,
Like everyone else, you’re entitled to your opinion. However, when you’re interviewing individuals about matters that are of vital importance to the entire country, and about which there is already an abundance of controversy, it’s not acceptable to pose “leading” questions that will most certainly result in answers that reflect your own personal beliefs. It’s also wrong to make your personal opinions apparent during your discourse with your guests. From my point of view, it’s your job to present the audience with varying points of view and allow them to form their own opinions based on your presentation of objective information. You’re too good a journalist to leave your viewers with the impression that you might be a shill for the GOP.
Mr. David Gregory:
There is a difference between being “balanced” and “honest.” Given the choice, a news reporter must always choose the latter.
Unfortunately, you have chosen balance over honesty.
You have repeated several times that Social Security is part of the deficit problem. This is utter nonsense. Social Security, as you know, is 100% financed by payroll taxes, not by general revenue.
In the future, Social Security will face a financing problem, but one that can be easily fixed. All that need be done is to make every wage earner pay the same rate. The current system has upper middle class and wealthy people (with incomes over $108,000) pay a much lower rate than everyone else.
Stop trying to be “fair” when the job of a reporter is to be “honest.”
Mr. Gregory, what is really driving the debt ceiling is the 8 years of wars and tax cuts for the rich during the Bush Administration, and we are still at war and the bush tax cuts are still in place for the rich!
Know you history and know your facts!
The Truth is not bias. You do not need to support the other side, when the facts are clear and correct.
We need reporters who know how to reason and sort out the facts from fiction.
Please, do not mislead the American People. We want information & facts!
Meet the Press is becoming a source for blatant misinformation. David Gregory is just repeating what the Republicans want him to say. The public clearly does NOT want to see cuts in entitlement programs. At the end of the Clinton administration we were doing fine. The social security funds (into which working people had paid) were stolen to finance unnecessary wars and tax breaks for the rich. Does the corporate media think we peons are too stupid to realize this?
[This was sent to MSNBC on 8/3/11]
On Meet the Press, David Gregory has been saying that the big drivers of U.S. debt are Social Security and Medicare. For example, on 5/10/11, he said, “To get an increase in the debt ceiling, they’re still going to leave unresolved some pretty tough questions about, are there going to be Medicare cuts, Social Security cuts. What are you going to do about the big drivers of the debt?”
That’s false. Social Security and Medicare have their own budgets and are supported by dedicated payroll taxes. Each has amassed massive surpluses over the past two decades, which they have loaned to the Treasury by buying U.S. government bonds. So in most of the time frame Gregory is talking about, entitlements have not contributed to the deficit at all, but rather have helped pay for it.
The big drivers of U.S. deficits and U.S. debt are war/military and insufficient taxes.
The wealth disparity in the USA is unconscionable. For example, for every $1 a white household has, a black household has a nickel. That disparity comes from some very, very rich people (mostly white). In order to have a decent country, we need to tax the rich and corporations and use the money in the U.S. for non-military interests. When poor people get money, including money from federal programs, they spend it – locally. When people spend money, that drives the economy.
To work towards a balance budget, we need to cut military spending and raise taxes on the rich and corporations.
To develop the economy, we need to increase demand by putting more money in the hands of people who will spend it.
(submitted to NBC web site)
Does David Gregory think he’s on Fox News? It’s one thing for Fox to perpetuate the myth that Social Security and Medicare are “driving the deficit” and to try to convince the public that they want cuts (which they overwhelmingly do not, according to numerous polls), but quite another when it’s repeated on Meet the Press–over and over again. Meet the Press has been a trusted and respected program for more than six decades. It tarnishes the program’s reputation to have Mr. Gregory spreading misinformation and pushing a particular political agenda in the guise of being tough on politicians. If something erroneous–or simply false–is repeated often enough, it begins to be accepted as true. Many people (including Mr. Gregory, it would seem) are not aware that Social Security and Medicare are insurance programs that everyone who works pays into. They are called “entitlements” because that is what they are; in other words, those who have paid into them for all their working years are “entitled” to receive the benefits from them once they qualify. The way the word is used these days makes it sound as though people receiving these benefits are getting an undeserved hand-out. They are merely getting paid back money they loaned to the government. These programs have been running surpluses with which they have been buying U.S. Treasury bonds for at least the last two decades, helping to cover the deficit, not adding to it. Social Security is fully funded out of its own budget for at least several more decades. The best ways to keep it that way indefinitely, are to continue to collect Social Security and Medicare taxes on higher incomes and, most immediately and importantly, boost the economy–get people back to work. This is the wrong time to be focused on cutting back government spending, which will cost thousands of jobs and have a ripple effect across the economy. And it is doing a disservice to the American public to mislead them into thinking that the social safety net is costing them money and must be cut.
It is unfortunate to see Mr. Gregory and NBC “carrying water” for the regressive conservatives, and spewing deceitful information to your viewers. Most intelligent people know and understand that Social Security is separately funded, and is 100% solvent for the next 27 years. It can be made solvent for the next 100 years by simply raising the upper limit at which high earners quit contributing (currently $106,000). It is also clear to any intelligent person that our deficit is the result of huge tax cuts given to the wealthiest Americans, and corporations coupled with 2 unfunded wars.
Medicare is a great program which should be expanded to include ALL Americans, not less. It can be funded by collecting the unpaid taxes from corporations who use the commons, but fail to pay ANY taxes due to loopholes and accounting trickery.
I can only therefore deduce that Mr. Gregory is either ignorant or a liar. Which one is it?
Mr. Gregory,
Please stop referring to entitlements like Medicare and Social Security as being “budget-busting” and “unsustainable” on your program, and arguing with your guests that those items need to be cut in a bi-partisan way. First, they are not the main drivers of what’s ailing our economy. Endless wars in the Middle East (that were started by us for no good reason), continued tax breaks for corporations and the wealthiest among us, and the increasingly risky investments made by our unaccountable financial sector for huge short term personal gain (and socialized losses) paint a more accurate picture. In your zeal to be a corporate team player who portrays both left and right to be equally at fault using false equivalencies so that you can maintain access and relationships with the powerful (as well as the status quo), you tend to ignore facts. Please stop this destructive nonsense and act like a true journalist.
This is why I turn off you hateful right-wing hacks on network television. You are ideologues who just flat out lie. Get your facts straight or shut up. You do not speak for the majority of American People. You simply ignore the polls on what the American People have said to continue your war on the entitlement programs that actually make us a better country. Why don’t you try telling the truth about taxes, the rich and corporations? About the wars and the pentagon spending? About the handouts to Big Ag, Energy and Pharma? About the destruction of the environment? Why not spread those facts from your seat. Stop blaming the poor and the elderly for bringing down the country and lay it where it belongs.
This is what I wrote to the Editors of “Meet the Press”:
I would like to protest your reporter, David Gregory, who on “Meet the Press” has repeatedly misled your viewers on Social Security. David Gregory was too young to remember that in 1983 President Reagan DOUBLED the payroll FICA contributions in anticipation of the baby boomers’ bulge to the program. They had real demographers in those days who told him about this, and President Reagan did the right thing. So David Gregory is uninformed about this “entitlement” contributing to “the deficit”. This program is sound and in surplus, and we have paid for it all along.
There are many reasons for “the deficit” (unfunded wars, tax cuts for the very rich, loopholes for corporations, defunding of federal agencies that collect taxes, etc.) Social Security isn’t one of them.
Please ask David Gregory to correct his statements at the next “Meet the Press”.
The idea that Social Security is a primary cause of the national debt is false. This idea has been perpetrated by right wing “think” tanks, especially the Cato Institute and Heritage Foundation, which were founded by Fred Koch with continued support from the Koch brothers. Their political agenda is to destroy the social safety net.
According to CBO, the primary causes of the public debt are the Bush tax cuts, the economic downturn, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and efforts to contain the recession — TARP, Fannie and Freddie rescues, Obama tax cuts and the stimulus.
Medicare, per se, is not the problem; it is overall health care costs, which are exacerbated by the money taken off the top by insurance companies. Medicare Part D is a problem because the law, written largely by Big Pharma, forbids any negotiations with the pharmaceutical industry to lower costs of medicines.
Social Security has been overfunded since the 1980s in order to account for the baby boom generation. Those extra funds have purchased special Treasury bonds, and the cash has gone into the general fund. In that sense Social Security has contributed to the national debt. By taking in more money, the debt is increased — a strange irony.
Payroll taxes contribute about 40% of the total revenue of the federal government while the income tax contributes about 42% and corporations 9%, per CBO.
Social Security is fully funded for at least 20 years, despite the conventional wisdom which you perpetuate. Please check the assumptions in the Social Security Trustees Report. They assume a continuing recession, very low growth, for the next 75 years, thus their statements the Social Security is in trouble.
I hope you will correct your mis-statements.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Your article states “â┚¬Ã‚¦’the American people’ have been fairly clear about what they want to happen to ENTITLEMENT spending.â┚¬Ã‚¦” Also: “What’s ‘ludicrous’ is Gregory’s contention that there’s widespread support for cutting ENTITLEMENTS.”
STOP USING THE OPPONENTS’ TERMINOLOGY!
Social Security and Medicare are NOT “ENTITLEMENTS”! Workers paid a part of their earnings into the system, just as one might pay on a regular basis into a savings account. Is it an “entitlement” when you withdraw the money from that account?
As has been reported by FAIR and corroborated by others (e.g., economist Dean Baker), Social Security and Medicare do not contribute to the deficit and in fact contribute to revenue.
Both programs are supported by dedicated payroll taxes, so that those who benefit from them also contributed to them, such that they are indeed entitled to them. “Entitlements” are not a bad thing if they are as a result of contribution.
The programs have generated surpluses from the collected taxes, and the money is used to buy government bonds. While this becomes a liability for the government, it is hardly a deficit since the government is simply paying on a debt it owes to Americans–by virtue of Americans having provided the loan money!
Stop spreading falsehoods about, and stop demonizing, solvent, salubrious, solidarity programs like Social Security and Medicare.
Start pointing to the real causes of the deficit, which mainly include a housing market bubble that burst and prompted taxpayer-funded bailouts to those who created the bubble, military spending, and tax cuts to the wealthy.
Sincerely,
David, you have been sending out misinformation on entitlements for some time and have not been called out for it. Let us take Meet the Press on 7/31/11 when you were interviewing John Thune. Here is some of what you said that is not true about the American People, I am one of many of the American People who do not in any way shape or form believe that those entitlements, particularly Social Security, have anything to do with the deficit. “Senator, what’s really ludicrous to the American people, even when the American people don’t always speak with one voice on this matter, is that Washington is not really dealing with what really drives the debt, that’s entitlement spending. It’s been going on this way and was a ticking time bomb since the ’60s, and Democrats–like you were saying, “Hey, we can’t deal with Social Security and Medicare.” You also went on to say “To get an increase in the debt ceiling, they’re still going to leave unresolved some pretty tough questions about, are there going to be Medicare cuts, Social Security cuts. What are you going to do about the big drivers of the debt?”
David your rehtoric is so similar to what the GOP have been and are saying. This is propoganda and You need to Stop!
Mr. Gregory,
You do not represent the American people when you say, “…don’t you think Americans understand what the problem with Social Security is?” The real problem is that you don’t understand what Americans want or what is actually contributing to the debt. A CNN poll found 84% of all respondents opposed cuts to Social Security, and your own network poll found that 38% of Americans believe Democrats should cut those entitlement programs. And what about the generous tax cuts to the rich (a decrease in revenue) or the larger military spending? Do you not see these as a contributor to the debt problem? Also, I would like you to provide evidence on how “..’entitlement spending” has been a ‘ticking time bomb since the 1960s’ and is ‘what really drives the debt.'” Entitlement programs have had surpluses that have helped pay for the debt, not contributed to it. Report the facts and conduct honest journalism.
I wasn’t thrilled about David Gregory’s appointment to fill the shoes of Tim Russert, in the first place, and often fine myself switching to Christine Amanpour’s competing program which is much more factual, informative, interesting and less biased. I’ll just stick with Christine, solely, for the time being.
David,
Please do some homework before cluttering the public airwaves with misinformation. Far from being “a big driver of the debt” or a “ticking time bomb”, Social Security is perhaps the most effective and successful government program ever designed. The only connection between the Social Security Trust fund (flush for decades to come) and the debt is represented by the IOUs it possesses from the pet projects of your weekly guests.
Where was your sense of fiscal responisbility as you clapped right along with Bush’s build-up to the farcical and tragic invasion of Iraq? I watched you closely, and not once did I see you question the wisdom, legality, or efficacy of that piece of American barbarism. How about every week when Kerr-McGee, Dow Chemical, and ADM recieve oodles of corporate welfare (in the form of advertising tax-exemptions) for sponsoring your canned show? These are the areas where cuts need to occur.
I know that you and your class have no interest in alleviating a stranger’s poverty or humiliating drudgery right up to the grave, but you have the responsiblity to be factually accurrate.
David Gregory . . .
Your assertion on 7.31.11 during your Meet The Press interview with Senator Thune that what really drives the size of the national debt is entitlement spending (you specifically identified Medicare and Social Security) was factually inaccurate. Both of these programs are funded by their own dedicated payroll tax systems and are solvent and running a surplus. The fact that the federal government has borrowed this surplus and is legally required to repay the full amount plus interest is not relevant in the current discussion of the need to reduce the nation’s indebtedness. Your flagrant misrepresentation of this fact, and your implication that Social Security and Medicare are funded by the general tax funds and/or borrowed monies is either evidence of your ignorance and unsuitability for your position with NBC News or of your covert sympathy for the Republican Lie Machine. In either case, you need to come clean with your viewers. Through FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) I understand this was not your only instance of misrepresenting Social Security and Medicare as causal factors in the creation of the country’s long-term indebtedness problem. Please acknowledge your errors soon on Meet The Press.
Dear Mr. Gregory:
As I understand it, the journalist’s role is to present well-researched facts, not baseless opinions. But on the US deficit/debt debate, you have repeatedly spread lies and distortions. This is to be expected from your partisan guests, but from the host of ‘Meet the Press’? What a shame. Please stop misinforming viewers about the main causes of the federal deficit–and the solutions the public supports. The US economy is indeed in crisis and we need responsible journalism more than ever. Please take this responsibility seriously, for the sake of the nation.
Sincerely,
Nicole Hala
Mr. Gregory,
Corporate media coverage of budget deficits and debt often turns to blaming Social Security and Medicare for being the real problem. Unfortunately I have noticed you have in particular been fond of passing such misleading claims as facts. In a question to Republican Senator John Thune you said “Senator, what’s really ludicrous to the American people, even when the American people don’t always speak with one voice on this matter, is that Washington is not really dealing with what really drives the debt, that’s entitlement spending. It’s been going on this way and was a ticking time bomb since the ’60s, and Democrats– were saying, “Hey, we can’t deal with Social Security and Medicare.” Like many reporters you’ve shown a willingness to criticize both political parties for being inflexible, while mentioning Republicans signing pledges to not raise taxes. However, being balanced should not be confused with being correct.
For starters, “the American people” have been fairly clear about what they want to happen to entitlement spending. They do not want cuts to Social Security and Medicare in order to balance the budget. In a recent CNN poll (7/18-20/11), 87 percent of respondents came out against cutting Medicare in order to reduce the deficit–a position shared by 90 percent of Democrats and 85 percent of both Republicans and independents. With Social Security, 84 percent of all respondents opposed cuts. What’s “ludicrous” is your statement that there is a widespread support for cutting entitlements.
A recent poll by your own network found that even when given the choice between failing to reach an agreement on the debt ceiling and making cuts to Social Security and Medicare, only 38 percent of people surveyed thought Democrats should agree to cutting those entitlement programs (NBC/Wall Street Journal, 7/14-17/11). Moreover there is no evidence to back up your claim that entitlement spending has been a ticking time bomb since the 1960s and that it is what really drives the debt.
Social Security and Medicare have their own budgets and are supported by dedicated payroll taxes. Each has amassed massive surpluses over the past two decades, which they have loaned to the Treasury by buying U.S. government bonds. So in the time frame your talking about entitlements have not contributed to the deficit at all, but rather have helped pay for it.
When the government pays back these loans–as it must, unless it borrowed trillions of dollars from working Americans under false pretenses–those payments will contribute to the deficit. But it makes no sense to think of the government paying back loans as Social Security contributing to the deficit. Please stop reporting falsehoods about entitlements.
Here was mine:
I’d like to add my voice to the number of viewers expressing their displeasure with your coverage of the whole “debt ceiling” debacle…or charade…bread and circuses…whatever you’d like to call it. Where is David Gregory getting this info on what the “American people” think? I’m curious and would like to see a source cited sometime. Even more curious is that actual polls….you know..real ones…not ones that Mr. Gregory seems to create in his own mind when he hosts his “news” program on Sundays…seem to indicate that the majority of Americans (of various political party identifications) don’t want their Medicare or Social Security cut. You know what’s really funny? Most would like the wealthy to actually pay their fair share…overwhelming amounts of the “American people”….in poll after poll say this. Why is it that your program and others like it always seem to dwell on cuts in entitlements? A more cynical person than myself might say that you’re a “news” organization owned by a giant corporation…a corporation full of our best and brightest wealthy citizenry, who of course don’t want to pay higher taxes. One might think they might even promote their strong feelings on chipping off a few more c-notes from their overstuffed wallets to Uncle Sam by having their “news” organization emphasize just about anything other than good progressive tax scales…you know…like we had under those tree-hugging Presidents Eisenhower and Reagan? But those are the thoughts of a more cynical person…not me! I’m sure Mr. Gregory was misinformed. After all, he’s an “honorable man.”
I LOVE these comments and letters. I’m an online advocate for a few causes, and had been up for two nights writing. So I called; since you are given a minute, and a voice interrupts you when it says, “You have 45 seconds left,” it’ easy to lose your place.What I said in essence, “You have been a newsman long enough to know that the SS/Medicare is 1. not an entitlement, but rather the workers’ and employers’ Insurance in a separate Trust, and I’m sure you remember when it was raided–repeatedly.” Second call, after ID’ing myself again: “You are being intellectual dishonest. You know the “budget busters” are two wars unpaid for, and lowering taxes to an absurd degree. Why are you scaring the elderly and the disabled, like me?” I am totally disabled, and awaiting surgery, but one thing that enrages me is intellectual dishonesty. Nancy, I’m with you. If you ever listen to Rush, you would know as well as I that he doesn’t understand one year’s worth of Economics. All Laisse-Faire, a la Adam Smith, but none of his ethics, such as the damage of monopolies, etc. And Dick S., Christine DOES know her facts, but my favorite is Farheed Zachariah. His interview with Kissinger was priceless. He throws a question, and it’s diverted, he’ll bring it right up again–no matter who it is.
I’m sorry. I did mention that Medicare D was paying high prices, and not allowed to bargain, like HMO’s and hospitals, upon the insistence of the Bush Administration. There are retired Republicans that, after voting for that bill, have jobs now in the pharmaceutical industries (not lobbying, therefore the 2 year statute does not apply) earning $2 Million a year. Not bad for one vote.
I’m dependent on Part D, but I still don’t like it. Every now and then I send a letter to that effect. I’m not sure if that was taken care of with the Health Insurance Bills–they bundled so many–but without a public option, well, there’s the monopoly problem, and it’s mandatory.
fair post: shorter
“Action Alert: David Gregory Misinforms”
Dear David,
I watch MTP regularly and lately I have found it disturbing how you seem to cater, coddle and agree with your GOP interviewees on the causes for our massive debt.
Stop misinforming viewers about the main causes of the federal deficit–and the solutions the public supports! All the polls paint a very clear picture as to what the public is in favor of: Shared Sacrifice!
On February 20, Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin was on the show and pointed out that “Social Security does not add one penny to the deficit.”
Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are not the problem. Bush tax cuts in ’01 and ’03 unpaid, 2 wars unpaid, Medicare D unpaid, deregulations for banks/Wall St. are root causes!
Dear Mr. Gregory,
Given that you are a journalist and have the attention of millions of Americans, it would seem proper for you to find the FACTS and share them as opposed to using the Republicans talking points.
2 wars off the books, ridiculous job killing tax cuts for the obscenely wealthy and a JOBS crisis (outsourcing and stagnant wages for 3 decades) are what caused this deficit, not Social Security and Medicare.
From now on, IF I even bother to watch your show again, I will take everything you say as an extension of the Republican party and not an objective journalist.
For DAVID GREGORY:
I am a well-informed, double-Ivy-league degree carrying citizen (Honors in History from Brown, MFA from Yale) who thinks and reads (and is a friend of Ron Klain, with whom I correspond about national issues).
If you, sir, have (or had, in school) a problem with math, I can sympathize. But since you are in an influential media position, you must not rely on your own very very fuzzy comprehension of the mathematical facts of the deficit, Social Security, and Medicare. You must educate yourself – it is your responsibility – with facts. Nothing but facts. No more Republican talking points that sound good to you, seem reasonable, appeal to your intuition, or were successfully sold to you by someone you were listening to early in your attempt to comprehend this economic situation.
HERE IS A FACT: Social Security and Medicare have their own budgets and are supported by dedicated payroll taxes.
They do not drive the deficit. You must stop saying that, since it is factually wrong.
You can’t say no one explained this to you. I’m sure you’re getting a lot of mail about it. Now do the right thing, sir.
Mr. Gregory,
It has come to my attention that on Meet the Press, you alleged that programs like Social Security and Medicare are the ‘drivers’ of the so-called deficit problem. This is factually incorrect – these programs are largely self-funded. What has actually caused the deficit is the drop in taxes received over the last 30 years, especially from corporations (http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/06/low_tax.html), two unfunded wars (more like 6 now, but who’s counting), bailouts for the financial industry, and the reduced take from the rich, culminating with the recently extended Bush tax cuts. We’re actually a low-tax country compared to other industrialized nations.
What you’re doing by repeating this ‘cut entitlements’ meme and trying to link it to the current deficit is perpetuating a long-running propaganda campaign formulated by the pickpockets who’ve been pillaging the middle class since Reagan. I’m rather astonished that a purported news show would so actively participate in such a scheme.
Luckily, in spite of this propaganda, the American people are wise to it and have stated over and over again in polls that they do not want these valuable and cost-effective social programs cut.
I urge you to 1) Ascertain the actual facts about the causes of the deficit, and 2) Present them fairly on your show. Please resist the urge to link the deficit to Social Security and Medicare – this is corporate clap-trap. You’re above that.
Thanks for listening,
Chris Patton