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02/18/2005: "An Easy Way to Tell that the Bush SS Plan is Full of Stuff"

Rumsfeld has said of the turmoil in Iraq that “stuff happens.” A brief review of the Administration’s plans for Social Security shows that lots of stuff must have happened when they were working it out. To continue the metaphor, the plan they are putting out is “stuffy.” Often when plans are full of stuff it’s possible to find nonsensical situations that arise when the features of the program interact. When the people who put a program have stuff for brains there tend to be a stuff-load of inconsistencies. Today’s entry spotlights one of these. First let’s note that Bush has been crisscrossing the country pointing out that the program will be “flat broke” when there is more money going out than coming in, an event forecasted to occur in 2018. Let’s forget for the moment that by this definition the US Treasury has been “flat broke” forever, particularly since Reagan started running up big deficits and especially particularly since Bush started running up REALLY big deficits. Anyway, it’s clear from Bush’s new “Social Security is Broken” stump speech that he feels bold action is needed. He probably uses those very words. He then outlines a program. The natural assumption any listener would make is that he is offering a program that addresses the problem he just talked about. But he isn’t. Let’s pick a specific example. He says that the problem is that there won’t be enough money going into the system in 2018 to pay the current level of benefits. He also has said that he will not entertain increases in the tax rate. He then suggests a program that would allow retirees to will their benefits to heirs. Let’s consider the case where a worker is almost ready for retirement but then dies. Under the Bush scenario, all of that money would then leave the system. Under the current scenario, that money is available to pay other retirees. See the contradiction? Bush is saying there isn’t enough money to pay for current benefits and in the same breath is proposing a costly new benefit that would drain significant sums from the system. Amazingly enough, legions of Dittoheads still find his logic to be inexorably compelling. Or maybe it’s not so amazing, considering all the stuff we’ve learned about Dittoheads.