He’s still talking about privatizing Social Security?

The solution is pretty easy. Raise the FICA taxable amount to equal the salary of a U.S. Congressman, and peg it to their salary. Then raise the minimum and regular retirement age on a regular schedule (not just once) and re-evaluation every off year (2009, 2011, etc.) You’ll find you can put off the retirement age increases and keep Social Security solvent very easily.

AH but they can whisper about it and appease to the conservatives that obssess over it and look good without, you know, having to actually do anything. Its a plus all the way around.

I figure the corporations who benefit from the war and would benefit from privatization have pegged Bush’s post-presidential bonus to his performance on these issues.

27 months left. Time for 3 9/11’s on his watch.

Talking about Social Security and stupidity, Sen. Rick Santorum is still for “personal accounts” (better known as “privitization”). Just see this Sunday’s transcript (pages 6 & 7) from Santorum’s MTP debate with Bob Casey: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14568263/page/6/ . And Santorum represent Pennsylvania–which is only second to Florida in the number of retirees–unbelievably dumb!

Well, you can give Santorum credit for one thing: He doesn’t let political reality get in the way of his ideology.

I have read this is already a done deal. Bush made it so in a signing statement and it will start being phased in AFTER the November elections..the same way the privatization of Medicaid is being phased in, in Jan. 2007. You won’t see any announcements of the Jan. changes to Medicaid and Medicare prior to November..I’ve already been notified of the Medicaid cuts that are forcing all the disabled, elderly, poor into FOR PROFIT HMO’S beginning in January 2007..substandard care doesn’t lower costs, it increases them as people become sicker from it. But then if you do not allow the diagnostic tests, treatments you can kill them off quicker and THAT saves money.

“Lance- why not make it simpler? Put the tax on TOTAL income, regardless of the amount…” – Castor Troy

I’m just suggesting the fix, not proposing the radical agenda 😉

It’s just like the new legislation to legalize the illegal wiretapping – a way to legitimize what is already being done. The 2007 budget has allocations for creating private accounts out of social security contributions. Check it out. He does things first then does the CYA legislation…

When Bush first proposed privatizing Social Security, the strategy memo that came out from the White House led off by stating that this was their first opportunity to do something about SS in “over 70 years.” What happened 70 years ago? That was when SS was created. These guys represent a wing of the Republican party that has been trying to eliminate SS since it first began, and to roll the clock back to 1900.

In fact, you can make a circumstantial case that at least part of the reason we are in Iraq has to do with eliminating Social Security. In 1999, Bush gave an interview to Mickey Herskowitz, a family friend who reported for the Houston Chronicle. In that interview, he mused about his father and Iraq. In that interview, he said: “One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as commander in chief. My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it. If I have a chance to invade, if I had that much capital, I’m not going to waste it. I’m going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I’m going to have a successful presidency.”

After the 2004 election, you could hear a distinct echo of this when Bush said in his first press conference: “And it’s one of the wonderful — it’s like earning capital. You asked, do I feel free. Let me put it to you this way: I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it. It is my style. That’s what happened in the — after the 2000 election, I earned some capital. I’ve earned capital in this election — and I’m going to spend it…”

First proposal out of the gate: eliminate Social Security. That’s where he spent his imaginary capital.

I think there were a lot of reasons for invading Iraq, more reasons than there were people involved in the decision. They all had their own collection of motives that converged in a perfect storm of nastiness. But I am also convinced that at least part of what passed through Bush’s tiny little brain (and Cheney’s too) was that it would be a splendid little war, easily won just like Daddy’s, but unlike Daddy when his approval ratings went through the roof he would use that capital to Get Things Done, starting with that damn communist Roosevelt program Social Security.

But try proving it.

“My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it.” – Boy George II

You know, I said the same thing about GHWB at the time. Political capital is something you spend, and if you do it right, you get more. You can’t bank it, the bank fees are hideous and it will be gone in no time.

Of course, 2004 was not really that much of a flood of Political Capital for Boy George II. But his handlers tell him that perception is reality in politics, so he is going to say so. I just wish he’d put his capital against comprehensive immigration reform and not waste it on stupid solutions to Social Security.

Of course, a lot of Boy George II’s capital went to the Medicare Drug Benefit. Remember the donut hole? Well, it seems that a vast majority of Americans will never be able to cross the hole. First, the calculation of how much you spend to get to the edge is different from the calculation of how much you have to spend to get across, so the hole is bigger. Second, few people have the means to actually make much distance across the hole. Third, the calculations are reset to zero on January 1st. Which means that even if you were getting money from the Government in one year, you’ll lose it starting the next.

Americans, just too dumb for their own good.