After denying any intention to dismantle the most successful government program in our nation's history, President Bush has announced plans to privatize Social Security.

Social Security benefits have reduced poverty among the aged from 35% in 1960 to 10% today. The social security system also provides benefits to the disabled.

The enormous payroll tax increase of 1982, pushed by Alan Greenspan, has, with a few minor changes, guaranteed social security solvency until 2038 at the earliest (2077 absent Bush's tax cuts for the wealthiest few). Bush's plan leaves a $1 trillion hole in social security, which would likely be left as an additional financial burden on our children and grandchildren.

Bush Moves to Privatize Social Security

AP

Fresh from re-election, President Bush is dusting off an ambitious proposal to overhaul Social Security, a controversial idea that had been shelved because of politics and the administration's focus on tax cuts and terrorism.

Bush envisions a framework that would partially privatize Social Security with personal investment accounts, similar to 401(k) plans, that would be voluntary for younger workers.

American workers currently pay 6.2 percent of their taxable income into Social Security, and employers match that amount. A starting point for an overhaul is a plan proposed by a presidential commission in 2001 that would divert 2 percent into private accounts. The remaining 4.2 percent — and the taxes employers pay — would go into the system, helping fund benefits for current retirees. That leaves an estimated shortfall of about $2 trillion to continue funding benefits for current retirees.

Freeper highlights

Exactly! What the Democrats are saying is to bury your heads into the sand and just keep throwing money into a defunct system. We all know due to the aging of society that we cannot continue to meet our pay out obligations and expect to have SS for people of my age. So why should I NOT want to take some of MY money and put it into my own "lock box" (I hated that expression).link

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The leftists are afraid of innovation when it comes to the economic sphere. In the social sphere, they generally are for change, but they seldom use critical thinking about whether one change or another will be harmful or not (gay "marriage," etc.). To them, any change is good and often the more disruptive the change, the better! When it comes to economic matters, they are afraid of any change and become very rigid in their thinking. They cannot see that Social Security cannot work the way it did fifty years ago because demographic changes just cannot support the old system. So all they can imagine is to throw more money at a system that will be bankrupt if there is not radical change soon. They are inclined to see new products and innovations as a threat rather than an opportunity -- how can they "plan" the economy if people keep inventing new things? link

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Phase it out. Shut it the hell down. It's a Ponzi scheme. How's that for privatizing? link