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Sunday, January 02, 2005

Social Security Debate

Posted by Bob Brigham When it comes to Social Security, there is no crisis. If you have a Kos account go join the open-source message refinement.

Posted at 06:41 PM in Economy | Technorati

Comments

I firmly believe this should be at least one of the "messages" on the upcoming Social Security debate.

The right has already got their strategy and resources lined up. We can't afford to wait.

Paul
Bring Ohio Home

Posted by: Paul at January 2, 2005 11:37 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Thank you for bringing this up. I consider myself a fairly liberal and somewhat (well I try) informed individual and I was buying into the crisis story, although I never thought privatization was the answer.

Posted by: WisVoter at January 3, 2005 04:35 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Indeed a powerful argument. Another antidote to privatization arguments might be to point out that people can indeed save in private tax-free savings accounts without having to bankrupt social security or bankrupt the rest of the government in order to transfer 1-2 trillion into social security. If people don't like 401k's, let's give them a federal savings account, and impress upon people that social security is insurance, but it won't be enough. Then let's tell people we won't raise the payroll tax in the future, we'll phase in mandatory savings instead.

Another reform I'd like to see is to have a minimu threshold for the employee contribution to social security. This would actually be justified because poorer people tend not to live as long and get as many benefits. $600 refunded to someone making $10,000 a year would help them make ends meet. I understand the Earned Income Tax Credit is something along these lines ...?

Posted by: Marc at January 3, 2005 07:46 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Bush's plan is a sneaky way to cut Social Security benefits. If you were born in 1956, your benefits will only be cut by .9% but if you are born in 2000 your benefits will be cut by 45.9%. It is similar to the Reagan plan in the 1980’s: both cut benefits after the president is in the grave. The Reagan plan was increasing the age eligibility but it didn’t start until 2002.

Posted by: DFuller at January 4, 2005 03:15 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment