Nbadan
05-04-2005, 02:57 AM
A fresh scoop on Social Security...
By Robert Kuttner | May 4, 2005
THERE IS one useful thing about President Bush's ''progressive indexing" proposal for Social Security. It finally makes explicit what we suspected -- that Bush intends benefit cuts for most American workers in order to finance his privatization plan.
Privatization, let's recall, requires either new taxes or increased government borrowing or benefit cuts -- you can't spend the same money twice. Under the present system, payroll taxes pay the cost of Social Security retirement checks. Bush would divert some of that tax money to optional private accounts. Consequently, privatization would worsen Social Security's modest projected shortfall by trillions of dollars unless benefits are cut. "Progressive indexing" is a disguised benefit cut, but the disguise is pitifully transparent. Here's how it works:
Under the present Social Security system, both workers and retirees are protected against inflation. During the four decades of my working life, Americans' real incomes and consumer prices have gone steadily up. So if I retire, say, in 2016, I will get an initial Social Security check based not on my income when I first earned a paycheck in 1966 but on my lifetime contribution to the system adjusted for current prices. And the inflation adjustments continue after I retire. (This cost-of-living guarantee is why Social Security beats any private alternative.)....
According to the calculations of Dean Baker, an economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, the Bush plan would guarantee only the bottom 30 percent of wage earners the benefits they get under the present system. Currently, that's people making less than $22,000 a year. Everyone else would get a benefit cut, and the cuts would increase over time.
Boston Globe (http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/05/04/not_rich_not_poor_watch_out)
The AARP is not gonna like this one bit, but hey, check out this quote by Scarborough about what he thinks Karl Rove is up to by having W continue to push this dead turkey..
Rove is the smartest political operator to run a White House in years. Unlike prior administrations, the Bush White House possesses ruthless efficiency and is driven by cold political realities.
And if I know Congress will never pass means testing for Social Security, why is Rove allowing the President to push this political poison pill?
Simple. He is setting Democrats up for the kill in 2006. Rove and Bush know their vision of reform was dead on arrival. Now it's time to clean up the carcass.
Instead of letting Democrats paint the program as a plan to punish workers while rewarding Wall Street next year, the White House has targeted the rich for sacrifice. Bush proposes saving Social Security on the backs of the wealthy. He knows neither Republicans nor Democrats will touch it. It costs him nothing. And next fall, when Democratic leaders like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi try to attack the President and his allies for their failed Social Security plan, class warfare will be off the table. That's because George Bush played that card at his press conference last week. It took me a few days to decode the White House strategy. The funny thing is it will take Harry Reid two years. Game, set, match once again to Karl Rove.
MSNBC (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6330851)
:rolleyes
How many people actually believe that W's new plan will actually punishes the rich?
By Robert Kuttner | May 4, 2005
THERE IS one useful thing about President Bush's ''progressive indexing" proposal for Social Security. It finally makes explicit what we suspected -- that Bush intends benefit cuts for most American workers in order to finance his privatization plan.
Privatization, let's recall, requires either new taxes or increased government borrowing or benefit cuts -- you can't spend the same money twice. Under the present system, payroll taxes pay the cost of Social Security retirement checks. Bush would divert some of that tax money to optional private accounts. Consequently, privatization would worsen Social Security's modest projected shortfall by trillions of dollars unless benefits are cut. "Progressive indexing" is a disguised benefit cut, but the disguise is pitifully transparent. Here's how it works:
Under the present Social Security system, both workers and retirees are protected against inflation. During the four decades of my working life, Americans' real incomes and consumer prices have gone steadily up. So if I retire, say, in 2016, I will get an initial Social Security check based not on my income when I first earned a paycheck in 1966 but on my lifetime contribution to the system adjusted for current prices. And the inflation adjustments continue after I retire. (This cost-of-living guarantee is why Social Security beats any private alternative.)....
According to the calculations of Dean Baker, an economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, the Bush plan would guarantee only the bottom 30 percent of wage earners the benefits they get under the present system. Currently, that's people making less than $22,000 a year. Everyone else would get a benefit cut, and the cuts would increase over time.
Boston Globe (http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/05/04/not_rich_not_poor_watch_out)
The AARP is not gonna like this one bit, but hey, check out this quote by Scarborough about what he thinks Karl Rove is up to by having W continue to push this dead turkey..
Rove is the smartest political operator to run a White House in years. Unlike prior administrations, the Bush White House possesses ruthless efficiency and is driven by cold political realities.
And if I know Congress will never pass means testing for Social Security, why is Rove allowing the President to push this political poison pill?
Simple. He is setting Democrats up for the kill in 2006. Rove and Bush know their vision of reform was dead on arrival. Now it's time to clean up the carcass.
Instead of letting Democrats paint the program as a plan to punish workers while rewarding Wall Street next year, the White House has targeted the rich for sacrifice. Bush proposes saving Social Security on the backs of the wealthy. He knows neither Republicans nor Democrats will touch it. It costs him nothing. And next fall, when Democratic leaders like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi try to attack the President and his allies for their failed Social Security plan, class warfare will be off the table. That's because George Bush played that card at his press conference last week. It took me a few days to decode the White House strategy. The funny thing is it will take Harry Reid two years. Game, set, match once again to Karl Rove.
MSNBC (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6330851)
:rolleyes
How many people actually believe that W's new plan will actually punishes the rich?