Will Bush Pass Social Security 'Reform'?

[Chicago Democrat]

Look into your crystal balls and think about the likelihood of Social Security reform as suggested by Bush. Will he get it through his Republican Congress?

[illflem]

1. It will cost too much

the deficit has to be fixed first

[Yupster]

13. agree illflem

There's just no money to even put a proposal together.

They'll never get a proposal to vote on. It will just be generic talk about hos in theory it's a good idea.

[Smirking_Chimp]

2. Privatize=steal

[mmonk]

3. Yes

There is no opposition party.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

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[baldguy]

5. Privatized & underfunded

Just like every other Bush program, the middle class and the poor - meaning the majority of people - will get the shaft.

[Chicago Democrat]

10. yup

[angrydemocrat]

6. Privatized Only Means

Fuck The American People Republicans Are The Party Of Power!

If this shit isn't stopped we are all screwed. You think it is bad now hell wait till Bush and the repukes finish then you will see bad!

[Chicago Democrat]

7. You are angry! Well said.

[SammyWinstonJack]

8. I really believe he'll lose this one

Atleast I hope he will.

[Chicago Democrat]

9. hope so, think so, this is a good one to filabuster

yay

[SammyWinstonJack]

23. YES INDEED!

THE DEMS WHO GAVE US THIS, NEED TO PROTECT IT! SHAME ON THEM IF THEY DON'T!

[BillZBubb]

11. Yes, there is no doubt some "reform" program will pass.

The Repugs control everything. The Dems are afraid of their shadow. Something bad will pass, but it will be a fairly small step. It won't do any immediately noticeable harm.

A few years later when the Repugs want to really do damage, they'll say "see that reform we passed in 2005 worked, so trust us on this!" That will allow them in future years to reach their ultimate goal of gutting Social Security. The sheeple will eagerly go along.

[formernaderite]

12. It will probably pass...but your answers were stupid...

....I do think there will be some compromises made.

[Califooyah Operative]

14. yep,

it'll probably pass, not because everyone wants to privatize it though. and its not going to offend everyone.

[ComerPerro]

15. Of course he will. The Republicans in congress are whores

Party line. Party line. Party line. They will do whatever Bush wants

[The Zanti Regent]

16. Yes it will pass

Bush will get enough Pink Tutus in the Senate to get to 60 to shut off the fillibuster. He only needs 5 and will get them (Baucus, Nelson, Lincoln, Landreu and Liberman).

Get ready for the Poor Farm revival!

[LimpingLib]

17. Medicare destruction passed with strong Senate support.

Government funding of HMOs (ie race to the bottom programs) to compete against Medicare was something the Democratc and Republicans in the Senate couldnt resist supporting at the behest of their corperate masters.

Expect the same with SS reform.

The corperation driven politicians see it as a win-win situation.

They let people take a risk with their money and suppose the market does good for them. The voters who gain more money for their SS checks see they benefited from the changes.The stock market gets large funding from a big government program.

OR

The Stock market doesnt benefit the future retirees , but they break roughly even.The stock market gets large funding from a large government program.

OR

The stock market causes many future retirees who choose to "invest" their SS funds in stocks to LOOSE money. Then the politicians say "you win some you lose some" OOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRR depending if the problem turns out to be grave (much larger than a few "idiots" making "bad investments"...which could take like 30 years to find out since "your in it for the long run , dont panic")then the future politicians in office will simply "insure" them by making across the board cuts in SS to make up their loss.This all depends on whether the problem is "cataclysmic" enough to warnt politicians compassion , anotherwords enough people get screwed that their can form a voting block.Or put another way , politicicans feel enough people going hungry (would need to be a LARGE number mind you , with none corperate or wealthy entities even 15% is peanuts , look at the numbers of those without health insurance that both partys simply ignore)might actually be able to do something that could cause the estemmed SEnator to loose his or her job.Anyway...in this scenario the stock market gets funds from a large government program.
'
This is the type of program the Max Baucus's and Joe Liebermann's fingerprints will be all over.

[napi21]

18. I don't think it will pass, nor anything close to what shrub is asking for

The deficit is too high already, lots of voters DON'T want it, and even though the Pubs are in control, they are far more interested in getting re-elected than they are kissing shrubs a**!

[LimpingLib]

19. But we need to "save Social Security"

Didnt you hear about the big SS funding crisis?

[Name removed]

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[jojo54]

21. I want to know where the surplus went

It was $110 bilion in 1999, all from SS taxes, according to hannibal.net and now moneyfiles.org is projecting a deficit of $100 billion by 2022. This is money that we Dems, Pugs, Indies, whites, blacks, Catholics, Christians, Jews and even the purple people eater have been paying as long as we've held jobs. In his second term, Clinton wanted to do something about SS but the Pugs said "Nah"! NOW they're ready to jump on the bandwagon just because the jesus freak says it's broke? I'm truely astounished at what the people of this country are letting happen while they wallow in their shameful consciousness of the pop star/child molester, the pro athlete/rapist and the mother/unborn son murderer. If these people care more about the Monday Night Football "towel foul" than more soldiers getting killed in an unjustifed war or the dollar dropping to it's all time low against the Euro, then we are indeed, a vain and selfish country!

Sorry, just had to get that out.......whew, I feel better!

[LimpingLib]

22. "jesus freaks say its broke"

This is propaganda from the "business" wing (dishonest greedy people actually) of not just the GOP but OUR party and especially rampant propaganda from all corners of the media.

I even heard that lady that sits on Bill Moyars show say how SS is going "broke" a few weeks back. Probabilly in igorance but it shows how effective the echo chamber is.

All I have to say about all this is that if they claim to be able to find the money to fund stock market schemes (frankly its going to be simply money we have raided from the rust fund , so the debt wont increase from this scheme unless interest rates increase which is quite possible btw)then if this plan fails they should still be able to come up with the money to replenish the "trust fund".

Granted it will probabilly increase interet rates but I want once and for all for people to see just how high our national debt is plus I want them to see that CONTRARY to the echo chamber noises SS and Medicare are self funded programs that have NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with our huge national debt that snowballs every single year.

Frankly SS has reduced the debt if anything due to lowering interest rates , government doesnt have to raise rates to get citizens (or foreingers)interested in purchasing bonds because the SS "trust fund" doesnt object to governments low interest rates purchases (heck it cant even speak up for itself when lots of BS is spewing out the corperate medias ass/mouth 24/7) plus the fact that it dramaticaly reduces the amount of bonds the government needs to purchase period , so the public debt so far at $4.5 billion seems to be low enough to be able to easily capture investors at low interest rates but its growing fast and there might be a tipping point in the market.

I amdit , our party sucks and none of the former (excluding the last paragraph) I said will happen but I do so much want the people to see where our government spends it money. People still think we spend it on "welfare queens" and "programs for lazy bums". All that kind of crap on right wing sites pisses me off so much , I cant stand going there anymore. They get all the corperate welfare and defence contractor goodies to the point that they get a stomach ache , yet they still claim there is some big welfare state in our nation for poor and middle class people.

[Chicago Democrat]

24. Al Franken says it wont pass

we can't just "borrow" 2 Trillion

[From the south]

26. why not? we borrowed 1/2 trillion this year

[HootieMcBoob]

25. Reform?

"Reform"?

I don't think we should repeat the right-wing code words on this site. This is our problem. The right-wing radicals say "reform" because it gives the impression that social security is broken and needs to be fixed.

As Paul Krugman says in his article today there's nothing broken about social security. It's a successful program that the radicals in the republican party want to destroy and in doing so line the pockets of the nations elite with the hard earned money of the middle class.

It's thievery pure and simple.

Never allow them to frame the debate. If you do, they win.

[blondeatlast]

27. Call it "playing the market with money we've earned," or, far shorter,

"stealing our hard earned money."