There are several fallacies that academics, politicians,and news media have conditioned Americans to accept as truth:

(1) The sequester is a cut in spending when it is only a small reduction of future growth in spending.

(2) New laws make us safer. Truth is drug, gun-ban and immigration laws have done little to change society.

(3) Anti-poverty programs reduce poverty. Truth is after four decades of anti-poverty programs the percentage of people in poverty remains the same. It has created a permanent dependent class of about 15 percent of the population. A large voting bloc.

(4) All government spending is necessary. Truth is 10 to 15 percent is politicians buying votes, perks and other waste.

(5) Social Security and Medicare aren’t ponzi schemes. Truth is we seniors, after paying in for 40 years, find that we are going to take out four times in Social Security money than we paid. There is no trust fund. The money was borrowed by the federal government to fund other social programs. This last fiscal year, Social Security had a $100 billion deficit. Our children and grandchildren will not only pay FICA taxes but will have to pay extra income taxes to repay interest bearing IOUs.

The people were easy to mislead because we want to believe fairy tales could be true. Remember your disapointment in Santa Claus?

H.E. Dickerson

Chester