Worthless IOUs

The Republican claim that the Social Security Trust Fund consists only of "worthless IOUs" has angered a lot of us on the left, not least of all me, and many responses have been generated to challenge that claim. But I also have the following bits to add, not so much as high level reasoned debate points, but as ways to condense our position into a few words, for the purposes of 'framing' the debate. In particular I would like to try and tie the phrase "worthless IOUs" to the Republican party as their view of what any promise by them (or in their opinion) the USA is. Democrats, of course, feel that a promise is a firm commitment, upon which you can rely, especially those made by the USA.

Where sarcasm and irony will not go over everyone's head the following phrase seems to sum up our feelings to a good extent. It is to be used where some conservative is ridiculing you for believing in the Trust Fund.

Of course, I understand that to a conservative I'm an unpatriotic liberal with little faith in the United States of America in part because I believe that our financial obligations are rock solid and the USA is the most secure creditor ever to exist, and not a super patriotic conservative who believes that the US is little more than a banana republic which will default on its debt at the drop of a hat and whose financial commitments are no more than "worthless IOUs".

A possible television add.

George Bush describing the Trust fund as "worthless IOUs". This is followed by a voiceover saying that while Republicans clearly feel that the financial commitments of the USA, especially those to our Senior Citizens, may be "worthless IOUs" the Democratic Party believes that they are firm commitments and are not "worthless IOUs".
Tag line: Don't let the Republicans turn the promise of America into a "worthless IOU".

This can be extended into a general add campaign to describe the whole of the Republican agenda as a program to turn the promise of America into a "worthless IOU".

A related idea is to have an add or a campaign on the theme that the Democratic Party has been warning for years that the Republicans were out to destroy Social Security. They ridicules that notion during the past several decades, but once in power the moved quickly to try and destroy Social Security. If you want to keep Social Security return the Democrats to the House and Senate.