Jake Pickle and Social Security

LOL E-mail from Bubby McMakin of McMakin and Associates in Taylor

EVERYTHING IS COMING THROUGH JUST FINE !!!!!

REGARDING YOUR ARTICLE ON SOCIAL SECURITY, I THINK BACK TO THE STAG BAR-B-Q'S AT FOX'S PLACE. I REMEMBER THAT ROMAN BARTOSH WAS ONE OF THE ORGANIZERS EACH YEAR. ONCE, WHEN JAKE PICKLE GOT UP TO SAY A FEW WORDS THANKING EVERYONE, HE REFERRED TO BARTOSH AS MY GOOD FRIEND "RAYMOND".

Beginning of the End?

The Austin, Texas media has been buzzing with praise since the passing of 91 year old former Congressman Jake Pickle. He came up just a little bit short in his work on the SS committee and he profited on a few real estate deals because of insider information, but there is no doubt that he was a great American politician, as they go.
The problem with SS began with Reagan Economics, when the payroll tax income for the system dwindled as the rich got richer and the working man started receiving less and less real earnings. Almost doubling the labor supply when housewives were forced to go to work to maintain their families, didn't help since earnings didn't increase proportionally. Because the system couldn't quite make the regular payments in 1983, a typical Great White House Shark attack began. Instead of borrowing from the general fund, (they don't mind borrowing trillions from current SS over-collections that were supposed to be paid out every year as collected), the new generation of Greed is Good Yuppies decided to overhaul the entire welfare system and stick SS in there too. As a result, medical, food stamps, nursing home administration and AFDC were shuffled around while Old Age Assistance and other adult assistance programs were transferred to the Federal Government. Jake Pickle was chairman of all this and he and Elderly Champion Claude Pepper did what they could. SS board chair at the time, Alan Greenspan, said recently that Pepper wanted a higher percentage of the payroll tax but it was defeated. What Pickle and Pepper didn't count on, it seems, was the amazing power of manipulative numbers and obscure projections used by government accountants and economists.
My father was drawing the maximum SS benefit while still working at the time and told me never to give a dime to the old age lobbying group AARP. I haven't but I thought about it when an AARP TV commercial suggested that the 78 billion spent yearly on the no-win War on Drugs be spent on medicine for the elderly.
I was in charge of everything the Welfare Department did in those days in a big part of South Texas and the Hill Country. I resigned in 1983. My letter gave health reasons. I thought the job was killing me. My successor later died at his desk. Young kids right out of college with doctorate degrees don't belong in management positions.
Yes, Jake Pickle , Lyndon Johnson and all the other leaders from my home district 10 at the time, did wonderful things for their constituents, their state and their country, in spite of mistakes that were made.
My home town of Taylor, Texas, threw a stag party for each of them at the Wilson Fox Ranch on the San Gabriel River each year they were in office. Johnson couldn't make it after he was Vice President because of security reasons. Taylor takes no blame for what he did after he left the Senate.
I met Jake Pickle at one of the parties in the late 60's. He was a great listener. I don't remember what was discussed but when we were finished, he stepped aside and chugged his whole cup of beer.

Sam Nettles 302 Mechem Box 11 Ruidoso, New Mexico 88345 512-632-7823







Sam Nettles -"Real Texas Freedom"http://www.angelfire.com/tx5/realtexasfreedom or http://realtexasfreedom.blogspot.com/