Originator of Bush's Soc Sec plan says "drop private accts" requirement

[housewolf]

From "Think Progress", via Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo:

President Bush’s Social Security plans just suffered another serious blow. Robert Pozen, whose “progressive indexing” plan was firmly endorsed by the president at a high-profile press conference last month, has said that Bush should drop his plans for private accounts.


Just out from CQ, password req’d:

said Wednesday that Bush should “back away” from the other half – the insistence that individual investment accounts be created in the program. …

“I would advise the president to say that carve-out accounts are no longer required,” Pozen said in an interview after a debate at the American Enterprise Institute with Brookings Institution scholar Peter R. Orszag, a leading critic of Bush’s proposal. Bush, Pozen said, should indicate that he is “willing to have a package that, if otherwise satisfactory, does not have carve-out accounts.”

Not only that, Pozen challenged the wider theme that Bush has used to justify private accounts:

For many conservatives, the philosophical importance of creating accounts from the payroll tax cannot be understated. They believe it would turn many lower-income workers into investors, ushering in a new “ownership society"…

Pozen disagrees. … Talk of an “ownership society,” Pozen said Wednesday, is “a weak basis” for arguing for an overhaul.

http://thinkprogress.org/index.php?p=917

[rodeodance]

1. this needs to be front page headlines in ALL newspapers!!

[housewolf]

2. Yes, it completely discredits the admin's plan

Quite amazing, actually

[Javaman]

3. But, but, but....

rove said that he will do everything he has to do to make the private accounts happen.

I think these morons have to get on the same page. I see a disconnect here.

By the way, when was the last time we heard moron* mention the private accounts anyway?

[housewolf]

4. Interesting news