The W.H.'s New Spin On Social Security

[Nbadan]

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush intends to prod Congress to consider raising Social Security benefits for low-income retirees while curtailing them for others as part of a plan to shore up the program's finances, Republican officials said Thursday in advance of Bush's prime time news conference.

Nearing the end of a 60-day campaign for Social Security overhaul, Bush had no plans to back down from his insistence that legislation include voluntary personal accounts for workers under 55, these officials added.

At the same time, they said his remarks prepared for the opening moments of the news conference dwelled on the need to make Social Security permanently solvent.

These officials spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the White House's desire for secrecy in advance of the president's remarks.

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AP

The good news is that under this plan the working poor will be screwed less than everyone else, the bad news is, we'll all still be screwed...

It is being leaked out already by the White House that Bush in fact will propose the Pozen progressive price indexing scheme, coupled with private accounts, a scheme that the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities said yesterday will ensure large benefit cuts for all beneficiaries (see link above). And when expected Medicare premium increases are calculated into the mix, it results in a further cut for beneficiaries. Bush is clearly trying to buy the support of lower-income beneficiaries by telling them that he is increasing their benefit while taking benefits from the higher income groups. But as the CBPP and others note, tying the Pozen indexing proposal to private accounts ensures very large benefit cuts for all wage groups when compared to the current program.

So as we suspected, despite the rhetoric tonight, Bush has no intention on giving up private accounts, and we'll have to see if a reporter asks him how he plans to pay for them and how much debt there will be.

But do you think any reporter tonight will have the guts or smarts to ask him 1) how much of a reduction in benefits will there be under this scheme as compared to the current program; and 2) how are you going to pay for the private accounts?

Nope.

The Left Coaster

Social Security will be much easier to eliminate altogether once its viewed as merely another 'welfare program'.

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

I don't know what we'd do without the Left Coaster, whatever the that is, providing "objective" coverage.



Bush isn't trying to eliminate SS. He's trying to come up with something so people younger than 45 years old today actually have something to fall back on when they retire, should they not have an IRA or 401k to fall back on.

But, it's Bush's idea, not Clitton's or Kerry's, so it's bound to suck[/liberal]

[The Ressurrected One]

Social Security will be much easier to eliminate altogether once its viewed as merely another 'welfare program'.

It should be eliminated. It's nothing more than a Ponzi scheme that, if operated by anyone other than the government, would net them a long prison sentence.

Frankly, I'd sacrifice all I've put in up til now if they'd just let me have my money to invest how I saw fit.