Here's the latest on Social Security from the Bush administration..."cuts"

[RedEarth]

Since Bush was re-elected, I think we all knew this would happen...it's part of their "starve the beast" plan that Paul Krugman pointed out over a year ago. Medicare will be next.....

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/03/politics/03social.htm...

Calling the current system of Social Security benefits unsustainable, a top economic adviser to President Bush on Thursday strongly implied that any overhaul of the system would have to include major cuts in guaranteed benefits for future retirees.

"Let me state clearly that there are no free lunches here," said N. Gregory Mankiw, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, at a conference on tax policy here.

"The benefits now scheduled for future generations under current law are not sustainable given the projected path of payroll tax revenue," he added. "They are empty promises."

Mr. Mankiw's remarks suggested that President Bush's plan to let people put some of their Social Security taxes into "personal savings accounts" would have to be accompanied by changes in the current system of benefits.

[FloridaPat]

1. Free lunch! I distinctly remember paying a small fortune to that fund

the last 20 years. Now if you want to look at free lunches, look at congressional retirement plans and the Pres & VP retirement plans.

[RaleighNCDUer]

3. Not to mention the free lunch for the brokerage houses that will

handle the private investment plans. They will certainly soak up a lot more than the 1% that SS now takes as overhead.

[DemBones DemBones]

2. Medicare premiums are going up 17% in January. . .

:grr:

[Baja Margie]

4. Our Health Insurance

Co-pay just went up again !

[LuLu550]

5. Focus, people!

This is why we hate the Bush administration! Dems have got to say, over and over and over, "Republicans want to cut YOUR social security benefits" "Republicans want to DISMANTLE social security" If we go out there saying "work together ---blah blah" we are going to lose this battle, too.

[LuLu550]

6. more details are out and the plan is too wacky to believe!

Apparently, you take the money and invest it, but if you make more with it than you would have gotten in social security, you have to pay some of it to the government...

How many idiots are really going to go for this?

[FloridaPat]

7. Not to mention the free lunch our congress people get and everyone

above them. To solve the SS problem, just put congress and the white house into SS.

[CBHagman]

8. Paying into the system is not "free lunch."

I pay into the Social Security system for THIRTY YEARS and some pretentious horse's posterior named N. Gregory Mankiw :eyes: makes reference to "free lunches." These clowns moved heaven and earth to get Bill Gates his tax cut, and now they're telling us we're expecting a FREE LUNCH?! We're going to pay for that worthless George W. Bush's pension and he tells us baby boomers we're "problems." (See his event in Westfield, New Jersey, on March 4th.)

The White House comment line (Or is that the Shite House comment line?) is 202-456-1111, if I'm not mistaken. Want to share how you feel?

[seventythree]

9. what about the IOU's?

Is W saying he will just welsh on the debt? Not pay those bonds backed by the full faith and credit of the US government? If so, then we are in deeper do than we thought, because all the foreign investors which are propping up the government will pull out. It IS NOT a social security problem, it is a budget problem because those IOU's have to be paid from the general budget. Here are some of my thoughts -- in process, only:1. You are going to need more workers in the system to pay the SS tax. In 1984,new federal employees started paying into SS, instead of the old federal pension system. Do the same with all state and local government -- all new employees pay SS, and phase out the state/local government pension systems. 2. DO NOT start bleeding nearly 800 million a year to foreign workers who were legal and paid into the system and went home. Bush is about to do this with Mexico. If you were here legally for 40 quarters,(10 years) and you never cared to become a citizen, so be it. Only citizens get to partake. You could have become one, I believe -- you chose not to -- end of story. 3. Get a handle on off shoring our jobs -- 12% of 18,000 is not as much as 12% of 50,000. Find a way to get our manufacturing jobs back here, and that starts with NO tax incentives to leave. 4. Raise the retirement age for those who are not even in the job market yet. The average life span of those who make it to 65,today, is about 5 years longer than those who made it to 65 in 1940. The babies are still at 67 for full retirement -- it should be closer to 70. 5. take a look at the amount of IOU's and start a ramp up, like Illinois did for its pension system. Immediately lock box the surplus which is still coming in until 2018, and start a continuing appropriation to pay back the "embezzlement."