Social Security: Crisis? What crisis? - CNN/Money

[rndmprsn]

http://money.cnn.com/2004/12/15/retirement/what_crisis/

Social Security: Crisis? What crisis?
Some experts say the urgency to reform Social Security is manufactured and very troubling.

By Jeanne Sahadi, CNN/Money senior writer

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The debate over Social Security is well under way, with President Bush Thursday giving guidelines for addressing what most acknowledge will be a shortfall in the program's funding in 40 or so years.

The president and some others support overhauling the system by partially privatizing it by giving younger workers the option of creating their own investment accounts and diverting some of their Social Security taxes to fund them.

But critics say the current proposals are dangerous. And some argue that it's wrong to characterize the eventual shortfall as a crisis.

CNN/Money will be covering the Social Security debate on an ongoing basis. This week, we're mapping out some of those critics' arguments.
Crisis? Check the calendar

Not only is Social Security not in crisis, it is as financially sound as ever, according to the liberal Center for Economic and Policy Research, run by Mark Weisbrot and Dean Baker, coauthors of "Social Security: The Phony Crisis."

[StClone]

1. The Crisis

Is there is still money in the Treasury that K-Street Republican crones want.

[Spike from MN]

2. Byron Dorgan was on C-SPAN a few days ago

and did an impromptu interview on the subject. He had been on "Face The Nation" on Sunday and as he came out the door of the building afterwards, he was met with a horde of reporters. You could tell he was initially surprised to see the reporters but he went ahead let them ask questions. (Try that with * and his cronies and see how far you get.)

Byron said Social Security is solvent to 2052. While he wasn't opposed to looking at ways to shore it up to make sure there won't be a crisis in the future, it's not something that absolutely has to be done immediately. He was adamant that there is NO Socail Security crisis and was steadfastly against privatizing it. He said SS was set up to guarantee that retired citizens won't end up in living in poverty but privatization would throw all that away. Byron was really great in this interview. Look for him to put up a helluva fight if Dubya and his cronies try to steal SS from us. Go Byron go!

[ProfessorPlum]

3. This "debate" is exactly like the run-up to Bush's War

Bush invents a crisis and lies and lies and lies about it (“Saddam’s unmanned drones of death will drop nukes on us!!” “Social security is going to crash and burn!”), but only at the politically convenient time (after his 2002 vacation for Iraq, after the election for Social Security). People get worried. The media do nothing to bring some sanity or rationality to the debate, but instead cheerlead as the populace is threatened into allowing Bushco to create a ruinous situation, so that Bush contributors can profit (military contractors war profiteer in Iraq, investment houses funnel the social security money). The details of the plan don't matter, nor are they attended to (amazingly, it has been about six years since Bush was honking on about these personal savings accounts coming up to 2000, and he still hasn’t put forward an actual proposal). Disastrous and predictable consequences follow: chaos in Iraq,
the fleecing of the entire American working class. It doesn't matter as long as there is confusion and government money is exposed for corporate cronies to steal. Bush declares that everything is going swimmingly amidst the wrack and ruin he has caused and vows to "stay the course".

Nice to see those author's quoted, though.