Posted on 04/11/2005 8:16:45 AM PDT by ceoinva
Personal accounts for Social Security should be the No. 1 economic policy priority for conservatives because, if done right, they would result in the greatest reduction in government in history.
If the payment of Social Security retirement benefits were shifted to personal accounts, as envisioned by the Ryan-Sununu bill, federal spending would drop by 5% of GDP. Federal spending is currently 20% of GDP but will rise dramatically in the future if we do not adopt fundamental reforms of all entitlement programs now.
Ryan-Sununu would finance about half the transition to personal accounts through limitations in projected total federal spending. That provision would reduce spending outside of Social Security by another 1.6% of GDP. Once personal accounts for Social Security are established and workers see how well they work, the accounts can be expanded to provide Social Security survivors-and-disability benefits through private life and disability insurance. That would reduce federal spending by another 1.5% of GDP.
(Excerpt) Read more at humaneventsonline.com ...
Social Security proposal is a canard; we have seen no indication that anyone in DC is interested in reducing Federal Spending in any shape or form. If they want to cut something; lets start with 100s of thousands of minor pork projects. Those are cuts that all tax payers can get behind and support. Then we can look at the new perscription benefits, farm bills, and highway construction expenses, and Iraqi reparations, to see how much of that is really needed. There are any numbers of ways to cut spending and the privatization of social security is not one of them. If you want to reduce "entitlement expenses" then lets begin by sealing the borders and send 8-20 million illegals back to wherever they came from. The only reason some are proposing this is so that we will give them permission to barrow and steal yet another 2 $trillion dollars of the taxpayer's net worth.
Ending social security is easy. You just yank the plug and call it quits; no more checks, or administration, or taxes as of today. I have no need for a government entity to oversee my "private" account; or, any portion thereof. But, that is not what our leadership is proposing. Perhaps, we should ask ourselves why not?
Xer Ping
Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effect Gen-Reagan/Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations (i.e. The Baby Boomers) are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.
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As much as i like the idea of yanking the program and calling it quits we both know that realisitically democrats wuold scream bloody murder and the media would be more than happy to help them. The problem republicans still face is that democrats seem to be pretty good at getting out a message while republicans are alot slower unless its a campaign year. Look at whats happening with social security, i mean minus a few progress for america ads which ive only seen on fox news ive never had anyone try to reach me about soc security. On the other hand ive seen AARp guys out there in malls and stuff bitching about it, getting calls left and right, and if i was your ordinary average citizen id almost believe that bush was going to give senior citizens dog food.
To fix the problem we have to to talk about the idea of government entitelement and how we simply don't have the money and resources to do these huge government handouts anymore. Its simply unfeasable and we face another problem nobody is talking about. In this day and age people are retiring at the same age as before (65isH, sometimes younger) and collecting soc security benefits and medicare benfits while at the same time living much longer. The problem is that these people who retire are at the PEAK of their earning potential while the young workforce replacing them is usually just at the start. How anyone realisitically expects the economy to sustain this is out of their mind. The public needs to be educated about the dangers of runaway entitlement spending and the GOP needs to appeal to their sense of work ethic instead of just sitting their yapping about policy or something that that most people just brush off.
We also need to make an effort to reach out to youth on this, something republicans neglect to do. If most of the youth began to realize that if these government programs got out of control that they themselves woudl be bearing the burden a much larger burden than probably any other time in history, they woudl be pissed and vote in the same numbers as seniors.
I agree that SS is a Ponzi scheme. But ending it is not that easy. The government has an obligation to ensure that older workers receive the benefits as promised to them.
The Ryan-Sununu plan is perfect. The WH needs to get behind this plan and support it.
My sister-in-law was born in '64 and she always thought she was an Xer. She was really ticked when she found out she was a Boomer, because she thinks they did their best to "destroy the world."
< /SARCASM >
No they don't.
The system should be phased out - pay off the older workers and mandate that younger workers invest in their own private account. Yanking SS benefits at the drop of a hat is not the conservative way. It's actually the method liberals secretly prefer.
Excerpt: CONCLUSION The Ryan-Sununu bill would produce dramatic, historic, breakthrough gains in personal prosperity for working people. The long-term Social Security financing crisis would be completely eliminated, without cutting benefits or raising taxes.Workers would receive through the large accounts in the Ryan-Sununu reform plan much higher benefits than Social Security currently promises.
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