Bush Promotes Social Security Plan

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) made a fresh push Saturday for a new Social Security (news - web sites) plan in which Americans would be allowed to channel a small portion of their income into "personal savings accounts," warning that inaction could end the retirement system.

"The system is headed towards bankruptcy down the road," Bush said in his weekly radio address. "If we do not act soon, Social Security will not be there for our children and grandchildren."

Bush reiterated that he will not finance the estimated $2 trillion cost of overhauling Social Security with increased payroll taxes; nor will he allow a change in benefits for retirees or those about to retire.

The president did not specify how he would pay for the changes. Administration officials have said enormous new government borrowing is all but certain.
...
The heart of Bush's proposal is the notion of allowing workers to put some of their money into the personal savings accounts — a step critics say would siphon money from a program that needs it.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=544&ncid=703&e=2&u=/ap/20041211/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_social_security

[Florida_Geek]

1. The key phase is "those about to retire. "

What does that mean??????

[FloridaPat]

2. Didn't he not have a plan just last month? Didn't he say he was open

to all ideas? Does this mean he lied again???

We should have a contest - see who can find the most times he actually told the truth.

[Javaman]

3. Par for the course. He says he has a plan but doesn't show what it is...

untill AFTER the bill is passed, then and only then everyone realizes that he screwed us again.

Perhaps this time, we as a nation can actually do something smart, hold the fuckers feet to the fire and force him to tell us what his stupid ass suck my wallet dry plan is before those lap dog repukes cowtow down and pass it.

[Nashyra]

4. He lied about WMD, he lied about reason for war

He lied about no child left behind, he lied about medicare reform, Do not trust him with Social Security, it is a payback to corporate donors on wall street. Social Security is alive and well and even better if they reduce the deficit, stop tax cuts for the wealthy donors and corporate welfare. Tell them to leave your ss alone, it is 100% able to fund it's retiree's until the year 2055, and if everything remains the same and does not get bnetter, it is able to fund @80%. It is a RED HERRING, a GIFT FOR WALL STREET. Most people are so damn selfish they don't care what happens after they are gone. That is the message I give people.

I will be going to a holiday party tonight, my brother asked me to leave politics at home and I told him of course unless some dumbass brings it up. My brother told his republican friend that he does not even want to got there with me because I would wipe his butt and embarrass him, just because the * won does not make the people who voted for him smart, just ignorant and uninformed, he told this guy that I could prove that! I don't think he really wants this guy to come. Wish me luck.

[Javaman]

5. Good luck and write if anything interesting happens....

[TahitiNut]

6. Un(der)employment is the greatest threat to Social Security

As we go a decade without an adjustment to the minimum wage, as we suffer under a Busholini Regime that has eliminated over ten million people from the workforce, as we go eight years with steadily decreasing real value wages for the bottom 90% that's transforming the U.S. into a banana republic with a Gini Index of 0.45 ... the policies of the Cheap Labor Profiteers running our Plantation Economy pose a far greater threat to Social Security than any other.

Social Security depends on a fairly-compensated workforce in which Americans are broadly enfranchised. The Busholini Regime is an implacable enemy of Labor. Overtime compensation? As it's reduced, so are OASDI/HI contributions. In every respect, these people are waging war on workers and retired workers -- all for the sake of the God of Greater Profits (robbing labor of the wealth they create).

A Full Employment and Fair Compensation policy would, with a small upwards adjustment of the age of eligibility, be quite sufficient to guarantee the health of Social Security for the next century - a future greater than its life so far.

[thecrow]

7. what about the billions of illegal immigrants

who have paid into the ss system over the years?
They can never collect ss. So there is a lot of money that ss has acquired over the years....

I, too, wonder about the phrase "people nearing retirment" as I am 54 and have paid into ss for 40 years!!!!

Are they going to issue me a refund check so I can invest in Wall St?

:wtf:

[buddysmellgood]

8. Frame the debate: RED INK REPUBLICANS, use the phrase liberally.

People want fiscal responsibility and security. Say it with me, say it loud, say it whenever talking about republicans and economic issues. Red Ink Republicans.