“Read it here.”:http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_12_05.php#004169
Discussing the Bush Administration’s plan to privatize Social Security:
bq. In other words, we have to start phasing out Social Security now because if we don’t we’re going to face some big borrowing in a few decades. But we can avoid that horror of horrors by doing some big time borrowing now to finance abolishing Social Security we won’t have to face that terrible fate a few decades from now.
Now I’m really not the biggest fan of entitlement programs myself, but the fact is, before Social Security there was even more of a problem with rampant poverty among the elderly than there is now. I don’t see how dismantling this program–which, just in case you missed it, _is not insolvent or in trouble at this time or likely any time in the next three decades_–can be a good thing.
Or, as an alternative, why not just be honest about what you’re doing. State, “Social Security is over.”, arrange to borrow the money to handle everyone over, say, 50 now, and then let me save my money how I wish. None of this forced saving bullshit.
Oh, yeah, I forgot, this isn’t about true choice–this is about how to funnel money from the pockets of the poor into the pockets of the well-off. So we’ll force people to invest in the stock market, which will mostly help stock brokers.
Feh.
