This is just another socalist power grab, to penalize those that did something with their lives. Before you start complaining about rich selfishness, I was dirt poor as a kid and grew up in the projects, so you can stuff your pity for the useless and non proforming up your a$$, I saw them all as a kid.
You can take the kid out of the ghetto, but you can't take the ghetto out of the kid.
Christ said, "The poor in spirit you have with you always."
I've been telling my wife for years that it would come to this. Those who prepared on their own for retirement (the ants) would take it in the shorts in favor of those who didn't prepare themselves (the grasshoppers).
What I never figured was that the screwing would come from our side....
Many can't. I agree that in theory, Social Security shouldn't exist at all. In reality, there's going to be some percentage of old people that can't provide for themselves, and doing nothing is not a politically acceptable solution. So I don't have a big problem with a means-tested welfare program specifically designed to keep senior citizens out of poverty. Such a program would be a tiny fraction of the size of Social Security today; an article posted here yesterday noted that 80% of SS payments go to recipients who are not poor. Turning SS into a real welfare program would greatly reduce the taxes needed to fund it; in fact, I'd abolish the payroll tax altogether and just fund it out of general revenue. Take the resulting money you save in taxes, and use that as your private account, with no government strings attached.
Bush's proposal is a very small step in this direction, and the outrage of the left is a pretty good sign that he's on the right track.