A source close to the president’s reelection campaign said Bush will run “big time” on revamping the Social Security system, a longstanding conservative goal.
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), a member of the House Social Security Subcommittee of the Ways and Means Committee, said reform could come in the 109th Congress. “What we’d like to do is run on it … so we have moral authority to act on it in ’05,” Ryan said.
Michelle Hitt, spokeswoman for Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss (Ga.), said voters generally understand that the Social Security system, slated to go bankrupt in 2018, is nearing insolvency.
How can someone defend this?
For an average white 30-year-old male, who is expected to die in his mid- to late 70s, the Social Security investment yields a negative 0.5 percent return over the course of a lifetime.
Most black men, one Republican staffer added, will not live long enough to draw on their pensions. Also, Social Security accounts, unlike the personal retirement accounts favored by conservative reformers, limit transferability. If a recipient’s children are older than 18 and a spouse’s income exceeds that of the recipient, the recipient’s Social Security investment will not stay in the family.
Sounds like theft to me.
Dan Maffei, Democratic spokesman for the House Ways and Means Committee, said Social Security is not simply a pension plan, as Republicans portray it, but part of a multipronged social insurance program.
That's what has to change.
No comments:
Post a Comment