[Previous entry: "Society’s Inheritance"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "DeLay Forever!"]

04/06/2005: "By the Numbers, Why Bush’s Social Security Plan is Tanking"

Karl Rove recently came out saying that only Social Security reform proposals including privatized accounts can be considered. This, accompanied by Bush’s recent threats against those opposing his plans, strikes me in two ways: 1) they’re painting themselves into a corner and 2) they’re so wrapped up in themselves that they believe the very act of showing their unalterable commitment will cause the waters to part. I have two observations to make on this: 1) They haven’t properly considered that tax cuts and entertaining patriotic invasions are a whole lot easier to sell than radical restructuring of established bread and butter programs and 2) They haven’t worked out the basic logic of their Social Security story. By the numbers, here’s that logic: 1) Social Security needs to change because, as is, it will impose too great a burden on the upcoming generation. 2) Privatization is the only solution. 3) Privatization would require extra trillions of dollars in borrowing, adding to a national debt already in the trillions. 4) The current trillions of dollars in debt are already a burden on the upcoming generation, so debt larger by two trillion more will be even MORE of a burden. QED: Social Security Privatization makes no sense as a means of addressing Social Security’s burdens on the upcoming generation (as opposed scratching the extreme right wing’s itch to privatize everything in sight). Given that the Bush Administration is still pushing the privatization idea, one can only draw three further conclusions: 1) they’re totally divorced from reality 2) they haven’t figured out that American voters are smarter than they give them credit for and 2) they may well be in for a surprise at midterm elections!