Al Gore wanted Social Security in a lock box, but nooooooooo.....

[Bluebear]

Bush’s “federal program” flub indicates ingrained hostility
sent a spokesperson out there to say ‘He misspoke, Social Security is a federal program.’ But it wasn’t a slip of the tongue. It was an expression of ingrained hostility to our ability as Americans to work through the instruments of self-governmen that our founders wrote into our Constitution. There is a preference on the other side for a dog-eat-dog, ‘every-person-to-himself’ mentality that works fine for the very wealthy, but does not work very well for those who are struggling to get by.
Source: Speech in West Virginia Nov 4, 2000

Bush didn’t know Soc.Sec.is federal; don’t trust him with it
Gore spent the day hammering at comments Bush made on Social Security. Bush said his plan scares some people “because they want the federal government controlling the Social Security, like it’s some kind of federal program.” Gore pressed his frequent argument that Bush’s plan effectively promises about $1 trillion from the Social Security Trust Fund to two groups of people: younger workers paying into the system, and older workers receiving current benefits.

“That program, which is indeed a federal program, reshaped the later years of our human life cycle-and it provided dignity,“ Gore said. ”If four days from a national election, he doesn’t know Social Security is a federal program, that may explain why he has been so willing to loot the money from the trust fund.“

In an earlier appearance in Iowa, Gore was blunter: ”Do you want to entrust the Oval Office to somebody who doesn’t even know Social Security is a federal program?“
Source: CNN.com Nov 3, 2000

Won’t break Social Security promises to seniors
Join with me, and we won’t make promises just to break them. We’ll keep our promises go the seniors who gave us everything that we have today. Instead of a system where everyone is in it together, the Bush plan would turn Social Security into a grab bag where everyone is out for himself. You might call it social insecurity. And that’s wrong for our values. It’s also wrong for our economy. Under our plan, Social Security will remain financially sound for more than 50 years.
Source: Speech in Kissimmee, Florida Nov 1, 2000

Will Bush cut benefits or raise the retirement age?
“This election is not only about the economy, but it’s about values. It starts with the economy but then it goes to our deeper values. The days are ticking down and Governor Bush has a choice to make. It’s time for him to tell us whether he will break his promise and cut benefits or raise the retirement age. Which will it be and when will he tell us?”
Source: AP Story, NY Times Oct 21, 2000

Claim that Social Security will go bankrupt is misleading
Gore said that Bush intended to take $1 trillion out of the Social Security trust fund and had promised the same money twice-once for the private accounts and once to pay benefits to retirees.

Gore was right to say that Bush’s plan will require $1 trillion to get started. Gore was also right that the money would come out of payroll taxes. But Gore was on shakier ground in suggesting that putting $1 trillion into private accounts would leave Social Security $1 trillion short of what it needs to pay in benefits, because of the Trust Fund surplus. Gore has a point in this sense: debt reduction can be seen as a way of saving for when Social Security will need general tax revenues to help pay for benefits.

Gore said that under Bush’s proposal, Social Security would be bankrupt in 20 years. But Social Security cannot be bankrupt except in the most technical sense. Even if nothing is done to help the system, Social Security will be able to pay more than 70% of promised benefits indefinitely.
Source: NY Times analysis of St. Louis debate Oct 19, 2000

and on and on and on....

http://www.ontheissues.org/Celeb/Al_Gore_Social_Security.htm

[LoZoccolo]

1. Ralph Nader and the splinterists saw little difference between the parties on this issue.

It is a good thing that they didn't repeat their mistake in 2004 (most of the splinterists, not Nader himself), but will they remember this in 2012, or whill they do silly things at the votting booth.

[Bluebear]

2. 'whill they do silly things at the votting booth.' - gee I khant ggues.

[dkf]

3. Man this is so depressing.

I remember crying at his concession speech. I knew Bush would be a disaster.

[Kahuna]

7. bush gave me the willies the first time I laid my eyes on him and

every single time after that. I knew he was trouble.

[dkf]

8. I thought and still do think he was an idiot

I can't believe the faith Republicans put in some not so brilliant people.

[stevedeshazer]

4. +1

Gore was right.

[Art_from_Ark]

5. +1

Imagine what the USA could have been like if both Bobby Kennedy and Al Gore had been President...

[Kahuna]

6. Blame the voters. And for the people who say Gore ran a lousy campaign..

as their excuse to NOT vote for him, I say rubbish! Al Gore was the vice president for 8 years. He should not have had to impress you if you were really a Democrat.

ETA, And isn't it typically the people who didn't vote for Gore the ones who are howling the loudest.

[Igel]

9. Either he got his lock box or he was gibbering.

Long before Gore, all excess FICA went into treasury obligations, a kind of special issue bond.

What did he want done with the money? Put in a $1 trillion bank account earning passbook interest? Oh. That's right. He had lots of chances to say but never did. He was arguing against Bush's plans, not saying what changes he'd make to ensure the "lock box" was anything more than the status quo.

So perhaps "lock box" meant the status quo, something like "keep all the FICA tax in-house, collected by the federal government and taken in exchange for federal debt." That's certainly what it sounds like. In other words, the current state of affairs is the lockbox.

That's unpleasant. I prefer to believe Gore meant something else. So he must have. What's left?

Now, the idea of a large cash pile is entertaining, but what do you do with it? Invest it? Just take it out of the economy and house it at Ft. Bragg? In other words, deflate the money supply? Nah. Plus, not a very interesting scenario unless we put it in $20 bills in a giant pile and then charge $200 a pop to let people roll around in it naked. With the required body-cavity searches upon leaving the room.

Gee, if invested, it could be lost in the market. It creates *'s plan, except it makes all the risk the government's and all the benefit go to the retirees. Oh, wait, that was the criticism of *'s plan, wasn't it. I guess we could argue that the federal government's economists are so much better at handling investments. If we need some dark humor to brighten our day.

Let's say there's no crash. Do we go for ROI or do we go for politics? What do I mean? I mean $1 trillion buys a lot of stock. If we own 51% of a bank, do we play with the bank since we have a controlling interest? Dump the bank's stock of we are displeased? Do we make it turn out a lot of short-term profit? Focus on long-term growth? Ask the local manager to give us a job? What? Large pensions funds are insulated from this kind of thing, but some state ones have pursued "social goals" of one kind or another to hurt those the government wants hurt or to help those the government wanted to help. Risky, playing politics with pensioners' money, but that's what some state legislatures wanted. Or the state Comptroller, at least.

Then there's the inevitable crash: You dump that much money into a market and it constitutes a local increase of the money supply, which probably will show up as inflation. NASDAQ, commodity prices, housing speculation all showed the same effect. What happens when you pull the money out and deflate the "local" money supply? Hmmm... That'll happen anyway, with all the 401(k)s and such. Put the feds into the game and its worse.

So while "Put all the money in a big box" sounds good, Gore never said it. He defended what the administration he was in did. Which is precisely what the * administration did. And it's precisely what the Obama administration would do, if it had an FICA surplus. All the other options are even worse--including, in fact, "put all the money in a big box".

Okay, I want to believe. Maybe if I start and finish that bottle of vodka I'll forget all this and be able to.

[Uncle Joe]

11. Gore would've raised social security benefits.

Paying off national debt keeps trust fund solvent until 2054

Gore wants to maintain the existing Social Security system (and indeed raise benefits), by subsidizing it from general taxation. He would:
would pay down the national debt as soon as possible, and transfer the equivalent of the interest saved to the Social Security trust fund
supports providing increased Social Security benefits to widows and women who take time off to bring up children

opposes raising retirement age to 70

would introduce, in addition to Social Security, individual accounts called “Retirement Savings Plus”, in which savings would be matched (at different rates according to income) by the federal government

Source: The Economist, “Issues 2000” Sep 30, 2000

Transferring the equivalent of the interest saved from paying down the debt to the Social Security Trust Fund with increased benefits would not have de-valued the dollar and that's above and beyond excess FICA.

Furthermore Gore knew Bush's tax polices would blow the budget up, giving politicians an incentive to raid the the fund, just as they're proposing to do today.

Privatization is “stock market roulette”

Gore charged that Bush’s proposal for deep tax cuts and allowing workers to invest in private savings accounts would undermine what he called “the greatest act of social policy” in the country’s history. Gore charged that Bush’s willingness to partially privatize the Social Security system would subject working families to a form of “stock market roulette” that could leave families worse off, not better. “I believe it’s wrong to ask our elderly to roll the dice with their retirement savings,” he said.

[spanone]

10. ...and they laughed at him