One last flailing shot at Social Security

February 3, 2006

Bush knows his fight to privatize Social Security is over. He mentioned it briefly during his State of the Union — prompting the Dems to stand and applaud, much to Bush’s chagrin — and told an audience in Minnesota yesterday that it “appears that there will be no solution because there’s too much politics.”

And yet, this realization of failure isn’t stopping Bush from lashing out at his critics once again.

“You know, it’s really hard for me to realize we have a problem, and travel around the country and look at younger workers paying payroll taxes into a system that I know is going bankrupt. It’s not right for members of Congress, by the way, to travel around the country and talk — and look at workers paying into a system that’s going bankrupt and not tell the truth.”

That’s right, the president is accusing others of not telling the truth about Social Security. I know; I couldn’t believe it either.

Ironically, Bush accused his critics of not telling the truth immediately after he claimed the Social Security system is “going bankrupt,” which isn’t true. I hate to rehash the same old debate and debunk Bush’s bogus claims all over again, but the president’s comments yesterday demand correction.

Bush has been talking about privatizing Social Security since his failed congressional campaign in 1978. With this in mind, the issue isn’t new to him. He knows — or at least should know — that the system isn’t “going bankrupt.” A year ago, Time magazine’s Karen Tumulty and Eric Roston addressed this point head on and explained quite well why the president’s claim is flat wrong.

What will actually happen in 2018, according to the Social Security trustees who oversee the program, is that the money paid out in benefits will begin to exceed the amount collected in taxes. And since Social Security will run a surplus until then (and has been running one for some time), it has billions available that it can tap to fill the gap. Even under conservative estimates, the system as it stands will have enough money to pay all its promised benefits until 2042 and most of its obligations for decades after.

What’s more, even if you take the President at his word — that a crisis and bankruptcy are fast approaching — the introduction of private accounts does nothing to slow that process. On the contrary, it makes things worse, by diverting payroll taxes from current retiree benefits and bringing the end of surpluses that much closer.

It’s odd that Bush devoted time yesterday to this subject, especially after he’s fought and lost. But what the hell, if the White House wants to re-start the debate on privatization over again, I’m all for it.

Last throes, anyone?

  • Bush is such a hack! If there was only a way to remove his silver spoon and make him a poor person. justice would be served.

  • He simply parrot’s back what his handlers program into his head. If he had any intellectual capacity at all he wouldn’t say half the things he does, but that’s not why he was chosen for this job.

    He’s simply the world’s most powerful dictation machine, and gol-durn proud of it, too.

  • I was so panic-stricken that Social Security would be privatized, I didn’t think clearly about the issue until the debate was over. Do you remember the October 2004 Ron Suskind story in the NYT Magazine where he wrote that Bush promised to promote Social Security privatization to a roomful of wealthy supporters? I’d really like to know who they were because I think those people expected to profit from privatization.

    In six months of campaigning for privatization, Bush never offered a “prospectus” to the investors. I never read any of the studies by Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch analyzing the impact on the stock market if a steady stream of cash was poured into every week. As potentially the biggest class of investors in American history, we were entitled to and could afford to pay for the best investment advice availabe in the world.

    Bush talked about investing in a “conservative” mutual fund but I don’t understand how the fund was supposed to operate. What if IBM’s plan to concentrate on providing services and not manufacturing turns out to be a bust? Does the social security fund hang on to IBM shares no matter what? Who could the shares be sold to? If the fund held GE shares and GE’s profits were dependent on a big government contract but its competitor was privately held, is there a conflict of interest?

    I suspect that Goldman Sach’s evaluation of the impact of social security privatization anticipated a big jump and then decline in stock value and that Bush was speaking to the people who read Goldman Sachs’ report.

    Anyone know how to get a copy?

  • Health care’s the really big problem, not Social Security.

    Corporations are already starting to bail on “their contribution” to the nation’s health care. Millions, or course, have no “company-paid” health care. The rising tide of the “baby boom” (births 1940-1960, trust me) will assuredly bust the health care “system”. The projected numbers of elderly per younger worker are truly staggering.

    Incidentally, contrary to the popular myth, the corporations don’t pay for health care even now. They write the cost off, meaning they pass the cost along to the taxpayers.

    I wonder how long it’ll take the US to join the rest of civilized (well, industrialized) world and adopt one-payer universal health care system.

  • Wow. Could it be that he’s so upset at the Dems applauding at his Social Security line that he’s decided to teach them a lesson by pushing it again? It fits with his nature. I hope it’s true. I was slightly worried that it might somehow pass the first time, but really can’t see how it has a chance this time around. Hopefully, the more his handlers try to explain that to him, the more he’ll keep talking about it.

  • Accusing members of Congress of not telling the truth, that must be that tone of good will and respect he was talking about.

    So nice to see these things debated with a civil tone.

    It’s “hard for me to realize we have a problem” too, but not in the way he means. Since I can both read and do math, I know that, now that his plan has failed the system can go along for quite a while.
    What an embarassment that man is.

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