Thursday, July 31, 2025

ANNALS OF TRUMPI$TAN: Trump’s newborn savings accounts a ‘back door for privatizing Social Security,’ Bessent says (Jacob Bogage, WaPo, July 30, 2025)

Greedy, extremist billionaires, including DJT's billionaire Treasury Secretary. SCOTT KENNETH HOMER BESSENT, really do want to privatize Social Security.  Ipse dixit, they can't fix it, folks.  Enough flummery, dupery and nincompoopery. From The Washington Post: 

Trump’s newborn savings accounts a ‘back door for privatizing Social Security,’ Bessent says

The accounts, known as ‘Trump accounts,’ were set up in the GOP’s new tax and spending law, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.



Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent attends a news conference in Stockholm during trade talks with China on Tuesday. (Magnus Lejhall/EPA/Shutterstock)

By 

The newborn savings accounts created as part of President Donald Trump’s massive new tax and immigration law are a “back door for privatizing Social Security,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday.

The so-called “Trump accounts” enacted as part of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” give newborns a $1,000 savings account that can be invested with tax deferred treatment. Families or their employers can make $5,000 contributions to the accounts each year until the beneficiary turns 18 years old.

The program is one of more popular components of the legislation, which Trump signed into law on July 4, and borrows from proposals made for years by Democrats.

Speaking at an event Wednesday hosted by the conservative news site Breitbart, Bessent said the accounts would improve economic outcomes for babies and children and said the Treasury Department would use them to increase financial literacy among young people. He likened learning about sound investing practices to a child learning to take responsibility for a pet.

And Bessent added that if enrollees allowed their accounts to grow over decades and saw the benefits of compound interest, they could in effect replace Social Security by allowing beneficiaries to accrue large and tax-preferred savings balances.

“At the end of the day, I’m not sure when the distribution level date should be. Should it be 30 and you can buy a house? Should it be 60? But in a way, it is a back door for privatizing Social Security,” Bessent said. “Social Security is a defined benefit plan paid out to the extent that if all of a sudden, if these accounts grow and you have hundreds of thousands of dollars for your retirement, then that’s a game changer.”

A Treasury spokesperson in a statement said Trump accounts are an “additive government program” that in addition to Social Security benefits will “broaden and increase the savings and wealth of Americans.”

“Social Security is a critical safety net for Americans and always will be. This administration has not just fought tirelessly for seniors, but is also fighting for the next generation,” said the spokesperson, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing a department policy preventing them from speaking on the record.

Social Security benefits are financed by payroll taxes, and as the number of retirees boom, U.S. workers and employers are not paying enough into the trust fund to sustain future benefits.

Without action from Congress to overhaul the program’s finances, the trust fund that pays for it will be insolvent by 2033, according to June projections from the program’s trustees, forcing a 23 percent cut to benefits.

Those figures, though, do not account for policy changes in Trump’s landmark tax law. A bonus to the standard deduction for seniors could hasten Social Security’s insolvency date to 2032, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan Washington think tank.

“On one hand, what they are doing is they are making Social Security less solvent and a riskier proposition for people,” said Howard Gleckman, senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. “On the other hand, the treasury secretary seems to be musing out loud about the idea of beginning to privatize the system.”

The idea was politically unpopular, and it contributed to historic losses for Republicans in the 2006 midterm elections, giving Democrats control of both chambers of Congress and largely ending the Bush administration’s legislative agenda.

“Today the Treasury Secretary said the quiet part out loud: Republicans’ ultimate goal is to privatize Social Security, and there isn’t a backdoor they won’t try to make Wall Street’s dream a reality,” Rep. Richard E. Neal (Massachusetts), the top Democrat on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, said in a statement. “For everyone else though, it’s yet another warning sign that they cannot be trusted to safeguard the program millions rely on and have paid into over a lifetime of work.”

What readers are saying

The comments overwhelmingly express skepticism and concern about the idea of newborn savings accounts as a potential "back door for privatizing Social Security." Many commenters argue that privatization would disproportionately benefit the wealthy, leaving lower-income... Show more
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Jacob Bogage covers the Trump administration's economic policy for The Washington Post, where he's worked since 2015. Contact him securely on Signal: jacobbogage.87. @jacobbogage
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Monday, July 28, 2025

ANNALS OF DeSANTISTAN: DeSantis floats mid-decade redistricting for Florida congressional seats. (Andrew Atterbiry, POITICCO< July 24, 2025)

Wacky sense of grievance by our former Congressan from St. Johns County, uncscholarly uncouth Florida Boy Governor RONALD DION DeSANTiS, a Harvard law graduate. Weird. Then read about reapportionment in scholarly articles, starting with Wikipedia links, here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_congressional_apportionment

DeSantis floats mid-decade redistricting for Florida congressional seats

The comments from DeSantis come as Democrats and Republicans spar over crucial congressional seats.

The map pushed by the governor ultimately resulted in Republicans gaining four seats across the state, helping the GOP narrowly win the House back in 2022. | AFP via Getty Images

By  ANDREW ATTERBURY07/24/2025 02:56 PM EDT

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Another red state may join Texas in trying to boost the GOP House majority ahead of the 2026 midterms.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, fresh off a win at the state Supreme Court over a congressional map he pushed through three years ago, said Thursday the state should consider overhauling its districts between censuses. The GOP governor claimed Florida’s map is currently “malapportioned” due to its population surge and that there’s “ample justification” for a mid-decade redistricting effort.

Florida, you know, we got a raw deal on the census,” DeSantis said during an event in Bradenton. “We only got one seat when some of these other states were getting seats, when we’ve obviously had more growth. We should have gotten at least two.”

The comments from DeSantis come as Democrats and Republicans spar over crucial congressional seats.

Texas Republicans recently called for a special session focused on redrawing their state’s maps to more heavily favor their party ahead of the midterms, and other GOP-led states are expected to follow suit. Democrats, meanwhile, are pushing back through events like a planned fundraiser in Martha’s Vineyardheadlined by former President Barack Obama to fight Republican redistricting proposals in Texas and Ohio.

Florida picked up an extra seat in the last round of reapportionment and produced maps that triggered a lengthy legal battle only resolved this month by the state Supreme Court. The map pushed by the governor ultimately resulted in Republicans gaining four seats across the state, helping the GOP narrowly win the House back in 2022.

“They should award Texas and Florida for sure, at least one more seat, because when [Joe] Biden took over, we were supposed to get two seats in Florida, and we only got one,” DeSantis said Thursday. “Rhode Island was supposed to lose a seat. And guess who the Commerce secretary under Biden was? Former governor of Rhode Island [Gina Raimondo]. Did Rhode Island end up losing a seat? No, they kept both.”

Gary Fineout contributed to this report.


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Merrill Williams, Jr., R.I.P

Washington Post reporter Morton Mintz exposed thalidomide, tobacco and other hazardous products and corporate coverups.  We met when I was Legal Counsel for Constitutional Rights at the Government Accountability Project. Through him, I provided a tobacco whistleblower Merrill Wiliams, Jr. with a legal memo explaining what the companies could do to him.  My employer was not happy. It would not consider representing Mr. Williams as a client.  I left GAP for private practice after I was fired. From Wikipedia: 


Merrell Williams Jr.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Merrell Williams Jr.
BornJanuary 26, 1941
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, US
DiedNovember 18, 2013 (aged 72)
Ocean Springs, Mississippi, US
Other namesMr. Butts
EducationPh.D. in Theater Arts
Alma materBaylor University and University of Denver
Occupationparalegal
Years active1988–1994
EmployerWyatt, Tarrant & Combs
Known forLeaking secret tobacco company documents
AwardsJoe A. Callaway Award for Civic Courage
Gleitsman Foundation's Citizen Activist Award

Merrell Williams Jr. (January 26, 1941 – November 18, 2013) was a whistleblower in the tobacco industry, revealing secret papers of tobacco companies showing that the companies had been lying to the public. It eventually resulted in a multi-billion-dollar settlement with the US states.

Early life

Merrill Williams Jr., was born in Baton Rouge, LouisianaJanuary 26, 1941, to a family of heavy cigarette smokers.[1]The family later moved to West Texas for most of his childhood,[2] then briefly to Mississippi. He attended Baylor University, obtained a master's degree from University of Mississippi, and, in 1971, a Ph.D. in theatre arts at University of Denver.[2] After obtaining his Ph.D., he taught at junior colleges.[3] By 1981, he was a heavy Kool menthol cigarette smoker, an alcoholic, and couldn't find work as a teacher. He began training as a paralegal at Sullivan Junior College of Business. Then his wife of 10 years moved to divorce him. Mr. Williams was left with little other than a bicycle. He took odd jobs to make do.[4]

Career

By the time Williams joined Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs in 1988 as a $9/hr (equivalent to $24/hr in 2024[5]) paralegal, he had declared bankruptcy four times, was behind in child support, and in the middle of his third divorce. His task was to assist the group reviewing documents from tobacco giant Brown & Williamson, preparing defenses for court cases against tobacco companies and legislation restricting tobacco use and marketing.[3]

He began to recognize that some of the papers contained valuable information exposing tobacco company malfeasance. By Christmas of 1988, he began stealing selected documents that he felt were the most important. In 1990 he sent a cache of the documents to his friend, Nina Selz, who lived in Orlando, Florida.

Between 1990 and 1992, he tried to get tobacco industry opponents interested in the documents. In September 1990, he met up with Richard Daynard, an anti-tobacco crusader, at Nina Selz's Orlando home. Daynard referred Williams to Morton Mintz, a retired investigative reporter from the Washington Post. Mintz reviewed the information, but felt that the legal liability was too high to publish it.[6] In March 1992, Williams was fired from his job at Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs. That same month, he had a quintuple bypass operation.[3]June 1992, Williams attempted to interest the U.S. Attorney's office in the issue, after learning that they were looking into allegations of fraud at the Council for Tobacco Research.[7] That attempt failed as well.

The next year, he sued the company for damages, claiming that the contents of the tobacco documents caused him great stress, eventually asking for $2.5 million, equivalent to $5 million in 2024.[5][6] The company quickly ascertained who was behind the lawsuit, and served him with a restraining order that essentially prevented him from discussing the case with his attorney, but the order was later altered to permit him to speak to his lawyer.[8] The accusations against Williams were later dropped.[2]

In 1994, Williams met with Don Barrett, a Mississippi attorney representing cancer patients suing tobacco firms. Barrett referred Williams to Richard Scruggs, another lawyer, who had made his fortune from asbestos litigation.[6] At the time of the meeting, Williams was "obviously very ill, very nervous, had been drinking."[9]Scruggs noted the significance of the documents Williams had selected. As summarized by Mike Moore (at that time Mississippi's Attorney General), the files refuted "the three big lies" of the tobacco industry: that "cigarettes don’t cause cancer, nicotine is not addictive, and we don’t market to kids."[3] Scruggs began financially supporting Williams, who bought a house and a 30-foot sailboat. Williams also began receiving $3,000/month (equivalent to $6,400/month in 2024[5]) from Scruggs for a paralegal job that didn't require any work.

Scruggs, along with Mike Moore, on May 6, 1994, brought 4,000 pages of Williams' purloined documents to Representative Henry Waxman, who began using them in hearings in Washington.[7][4][10][9] Later that same month, a large box containing the 4,000 pages of documents obtained by Williams, with no return address other than the name "Mr. Butts",[9][11] was shipped Federal Express to UCSF Professor Stanton Glantz, who quickly recognized their importance and began publicizing the documents and publishing analyses based upon them.[6][12]

The ensuing series of revelations led to a 1998 settlement against US tobacco companies for over $206 billion, equivalent to over $397 billion in 2024.[5] Scruggs, who had personally received $300 million in the settlement,[13] gave Williams $1.5 million.

Late life

Afterwards, he quickly faded from what limited public view there was. He resided in various locations in Florida, Mississippi, and the Virgin Islands.[2] He died November 18, 2013, in Ocean Springs, Mississippifrom heart disease, probably brought on by heavy smoking.[14]

Awards

See also

References

  1.  Martin, Douglas (December 4, 2013). "Merrell Williams jnr obituary: Whistleblower who exposed the three big lies of America's tobacco giants". The Sydney Morning Herald. New York Times. Archived from the original on August 20, 2021. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
  2.  Chawkins, Steve (November 28, 2013). "Merrell Williams Jr. dies at 72; former paralegal fought Big Tobacco". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on August 20, 2021. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
  3.  Martin, Douglas (November 27, 2013). "Merrell Williams Jr., Paralegal Who Bared Big Tobacco, Dies at 72". The New York Times. p. B17. Archived from the original on August 21, 2021. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
  4.  Hilts, Philip J. (August 8, 1994). "A Life of Hiding for a Tobacco Critic Bound to Silence". The New York Times. p. A11. Archived from the original on May 26, 2015. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
  5.  1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.
  6.  Barstow, David (September 30, 2005). "The Thief and the Third Wave". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
  7.  Levin, Myron (June 23, 1996). "Smoking Gun : The Unlikely Figure Who Rocked the U.S. Tobacco Industry". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 22, 2021.
  8.  Hilts, Philip J. (November 12, 1994). "Court Eases Restraining Order in Tobacco Document Case". The New York Times. p. 9. Archived from the original on May 26, 2015. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
  9.  "Interviews - Richard Scruggs | Inside The Tobacco Deal". Frontline. PBS. 1998. Archived from the original on August 21, 2021. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
  10.  Lewis, Linda (December 4, 2013). "Whistleblower described as "tobacco industry's worst nightmare" dies | Whistleblowing Today". Whistleblowing Today. Archived from the original on August 21, 2021. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
  11.  Cummings, K M; Pollay, R W (March 2002). "Exposing Mr Butts' tricks of the trade". Tobacco Control. 11(suppl 1): i1 – i4. doi:10.1136/tc.11.suppl_1.i1. PMC 1766064.
  12.  Glantz, Stanton A.; Slade, John; Bero, Lisa A.; Hanauer, Peter; Barnes, Deborah E., eds. (1996). The cigarette papers. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 560. ISBN 9780520213722. Archived from the original on August 21, 2021. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
  13.  "Who's Afraid Of Dickie Scruggs?". Newsweek. December 5, 1999. Archived from the original on August 21, 2021. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
  14.  "Well-Known Tobacco Whistleblower, Merrell Williams Jr., Recently Dies". Barrett Law PLLC. February 14, 2014. Archived from the original on August 21, 2021. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
  15.  "Past Winners of The Joe A. Callaway Award for Civic Courage". Callaway Awards. Retrieved August 20,2021.
  16.  "Gleitsman Citizen Activist Award". Harvard Kennedy School Center for Public Leadership. Archived from the original on August 21, 2021. Retrieved August 20, 2021. (listed as Merrill [sic] Williams)
  17.  H.J.Res. 367 (103rd Cong.)

Further reading

  • Hilts, Philip (1996). Smokescreen : the truth behind the tobacco industry cover-up. Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co. ISBN 0-201-48836-1.
  • Orey, Michael (1999). Assuming the risk : the mavericks, the lawyers, and the whistle-blowers who beat big tobacco. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co. ISBN 0-316-66489-8. OCLC 40862169.

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