[Luke]

Almost had me going there... until "The president might want to pull up on privatizing Social Security, too. That won't help the program. Means-testing will, and a bunch of us who don't need Social Security would understand giving up a little for our fellow citizens.

Sounds like it comes right out of the Liberal handbook.

[ThinkDifferent]

But he's right. There are exactly three solutions for Social Security: raise taxes, cut benefits, or increase the deficit. Private accounts are nothing more than a combination of benefit cuts and tax cuts, with the stipulation that you can only invest the money from the tax cut in government-approved ways.

It seems obvious to me that cutting benefits is much better than raising taxes or increasing deficit spending. And as a practical matter, you're not going to be able to cut benefits for those for whom SS is their only source of income. Ergo, means testing.