Holistic Government Reform

[Telly Savalas]

Check out this little graph from Brad Delong's blog.

Social Security is just like any other government program: taxes go in and expenditures go out. Unlike other programs, however, the taxes earmarked for Social Security are actually enough to pay for the program. Since the rest of the government is already in the red, and there is no sign that this will ever change, the crisis facing the non-Social Security sector of the government is considerably worse than that of Social Security. To avoid this inevitable insolvency, we need Holistic Government Reform. Here's how it works:

One third of your tax dollars will be invested in private markets, and 20 years from now these funds will be used to pay for defence spending.

Sound like a stupid idea? You bet. But it's precisely what Bush wants to do with Social Security.