The Social Security and bank bailouts mess continues inexorably to what can only be a cataclysmic conclusion (for taxpayers) at the current rate of financial meltdown and confusion in Congress. According to the Washington Post, President Obama has said that “it is impossible to separate the country’s financial ills from the long-term need to rein in health-care costs, stabilize Social Security and prevent the Medicare program from bankrupting the government.”

After Washington’s trillion-dollar bank bailouts and trillion-dollar-plus gratuitous wars for the sake of the military industry’s (defense contractor) profits, there is no money for Social Security and Medicare. According to economic analyst Paul Craig Roberts: "The United States government breaks its contracts with its citizens on a daily basis, but AIG’s bonus contracts are sacrosanct. Right.

The Social Security contract was broken when the government decided to tax 85% of the benefits. It was broken again when the Clinton administration rigged the inflation measure in order to beat retirees out of their cost-of-living adjustments. To have any real Medicare coverage, a person has to give up part of his Social Security check to pay Medicare Part B premium and then take out a private supplemental policy.

The true cost of Medicare to beneficiaries is about $6,000 annually in premiums, plus deductibles and the Medicare tax, if the person is still earning. Treasury Secretary Geithner, the fox in charge of the hen house, has resolved the problem for us. He is going to withhold $165 million (the amount of the AIG bonuses) from the next taxpayer payment to AIG of $30 billion, i.e. $30,000 million. If someone handed you $30,000 dollars, would you mind if they held back $165?" Salient questions indeed. Where will your money be, when even our latest robber-baron administration can no longer rob enough from Peter to pay Paul? Roberts goes on to say that "PR flaks have rechristened the bonus payments “retention payments” necessary if AIG is to retain crucial employees. This lie was shot down by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who informed the House Committee on Financial Services that the payments went to members of AIG’s Financial Products subsidiary, “the unit of AIG that was principally responsible for the firm’s meltdown.”

As for retention, Cuomo pointed out that 'numerous individuals who received large ‘retention’ bonuses are no longer at the firm'.