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Bush wants to renew Social Security push after vote
Reuters News Service ^ | Sept. 9, 2006 | Reuters News Service

Posted on 09/09/2006 2:18:37 PM PDT by Dubya

WASHINGTON - President Bush hopes to revive his plan to overhaul the U.S. Social Security retirement program if his Republican party keeps control of the Congress in the November midterm elections, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. ADVERTISEMENT

Despite polls suggesting Democrats have their best chance in years to regain control of the House of Representatives, Bush told the newspaper in an interview he was confident a power shift was "not going to happen."

"I just don't believe it," he said, adding that if Republicans prevail at the polls, next year might be a good time to reintroduce the effort to reshape Social Security because he could "drain the politics out of the issue."

Bush was forced to abandoned his 2005 push to add private accounts to the retirement program, in part because of concerns among Republicans that the unpopular plan would jeopardize their chances in this year's elections.

Some Democrats have emphasized the Social Security reform plan in their campaign to oust Republican incumbents in November, contending it would inject too much risk into the program and push the government deeper into debt.

Bush made Social Security investment accounts a top domestic priority for his second term, arguing such a system would help young people by putting the retirement program on a more sustainable financial footing.


TOPICS: Government
KEYWORDS: 109th; 2006; 2006agenda; bush43; issues; socialsecurity
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1 posted on 09/09/2006 2:18:38 PM PDT by Dubya
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To: Dubya

I think Rove's internal polls are telling Bush something that the media would like to ignore. A Republican victory in November.


2 posted on 09/09/2006 2:21:26 PM PDT by Russ
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To: Dubya

Just roll whatever amount of money workers up to the age of 50 have contributed into SS into a private IRA or 401(k) plan and repeal the payroll tax.


3 posted on 09/09/2006 2:25:56 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
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To: Russ

Where's that "Rove, you magnificent bastard!" pic at?


4 posted on 09/09/2006 2:26:29 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
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To: Russ
I think Rove's internal polls are telling Bush something that the media would like to ignore. A Republican victory in November.

Then I think they should pipe down on this talk... it wasn't popular a year and a half ago, it will only motivate Dem support at this point..

5 posted on 09/09/2006 2:28:47 PM PDT by detroitdarien
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
I'll second that.

I just hope Bush really presses for this after the election. His first effort for it fell on deaf ears.

6 posted on 09/09/2006 2:33:44 PM PDT by My2Cents (A pirate's life for me.)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

7 posted on 09/09/2006 2:35:41 PM PDT by My2Cents (A pirate's life for me.)
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To: detroitdarien

"Then I think they should pipe down on this talk"

Rove thinks he's running this election.

What's Rove's payoff after 2008? He failed on Social Security reform, so no multi-million dollar kickback consultancy from the brokerages. Doesn' look like the casinos and hotel chains are going to get their radical immigration bill. I guess there's the drug companies, but their bill didn't need Rove leading Bush by the nose.

Or is Bush still wants to seem "in charge" aand is bringing up this phoney-privatization plan again?


8 posted on 09/09/2006 2:42:37 PM PDT by Shermy (A louder mime)
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To: Kenny Bunk

The blogger Kenny Bunk predicted something like this. Rove/Bush throwing the election to the Democrats in order to get the radical immigration bill through.

What the heck, only two years to go, both lame ducks, might as well cash in with the wage depression lobbies and secure sinecures.

What else could explain this incredibly stupid move to bring up Bush's vague Social Security plans?


9 posted on 09/09/2006 2:48:59 PM PDT by Shermy (A louder mime)
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To: Dubya

a bad idea to float this idea before the elections. very bad.


10 posted on 09/09/2006 2:52:12 PM PDT by oceanview
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To: Shermy

whore-hey is good on the war, but a sissy sub bitch on everything else


11 posted on 09/09/2006 2:53:52 PM PDT by cajun-jack
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To: Shermy

there isn't anything wrong with the basic idea, but they did a poor job of framing the issue last time. never once did they explain how it would work, never compared it to 401Ks (which are very popular), etc. and they aren't going to be able to explain it 60 days before an election, so they would best keep quiet now.


12 posted on 09/09/2006 2:55:09 PM PDT by oceanview
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

Hell, I would tell them to keep it if they would let me opt out.


13 posted on 09/09/2006 3:03:50 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (G-d is not a Republican. But Satan is definitely a Democrat.)
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To: Dubya
SS must be replaced by a system where the individual owns his own retirement money in his own account. SS is based on a flawed architecture, which depends on looting the ongoing earnings of present workers to the advantage of those who qualify for a retirement "benefit".

But, it took us a long time to get to the size of unfunded future obligation that the government has piled up, so we must allow that it will take some time to get out of it.

The first obligation of anyone who realizes they were stealing (which SS does in order to finance its payments), is to admit the theft. Likewise, the solution to SS is for the government to formally recognize the unfunded future liabilities of the system by making that debt full, legal, transparent, and tradable. In this way, the market will give an independent valuation like the kind required by GAAP and SOX ("mark to market").

A government agency, or even a private mutual fund like PIMCO, would be free to offer a fund that offered the low return exactly patterned after the present SS fund. But account holders would also be allowed to invest in qualifying funds that invested in large baskets of securities. At worse, people would get only as much in retirement than is presently promised.

14 posted on 09/09/2006 3:05:11 PM PDT by theBuckwheat
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To: Dubya

What's amazing about the Social Security issue is that the "do nothing" position remains a commonly adopted political posture despite the publicly available evidence of the costs of delaying action.

Certain conclusions are inescapable, by the numbers alone:
1) The problem isn’t going to go away.
2) Every year of delay makes the situation worse.
3) When action does inevitably have to occur, those who continually downplayed the need for action won't appear very smart or very responsible.

Just a few tidbits, which people are free to look up in the Trustees' reports for themselves:

-- Under current estimates, Social Security’s expenditures will surpass tax revenues by 2017.
-- Even if every conceivable demographic and economic variable breaks in one direction, this date won't slip much. A stochastic analysis shows a 95 % chance that the permanent deficits will begin somewhere between 2013 (the 2.5th percentile) and 2022 (the 97.5th percentile.)
-- This year the Trustees’ estimate of the total Social Security shortfall is $13.4 trillion. The Trustees started publishing estimates of the shortfall in 2003. In just the past three years, this estimate has grown from $10.5 trillion to $13.4 trillion, mostly due to the loss of time.
-- The projected 75-year deficit is already now much bigger than the one that confronted the Greenspan Commission in a "crisis atmosphere" in 1981-83 -- yet some say there's no problem now.
-- In the 1991 Trustees’ report, the date of first deficits was projected as 2017 – exactly the same as predicted today. The lack of net movement in the date since 1991 means that we’ve now frittered away 15 of the 26 years of lead time we had then, though nothing has happened to suggest that the situation will be any better. If the Trustees really were overstating the problem, then it would grow more distant in later reports as actual data gradually replaces the projections. In reality, the opposite has happened: the Intermediate estimates in use since 1983 have been, on balance, somewhat too optimistic.

The bottom line is that delay is a very costly proposition for our children and grandchildren. Those who downplay the problem, and who suggest that reform isn’t necessary, are badly disconnected from the factual evidence, and will likely be badly embarrassed by future events (providing that anyone bothers to check people's past utterances, of course).


15 posted on 09/10/2006 11:37:03 AM PDT by Feverishb
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To: cajun-jack

You should change your ID to Cajun-jerk


16 posted on 09/15/2006 11:02:49 AM PDT by 1035rep
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To: Dubya
President Bush hopes to revive his plan to overhaul the U.S. Social Security retirement program...

Where did they get this info? Did W come right out and say it?

>...in part because of concerns among Republicans that the unpopular plan would...

Wow, no bias here!

17 posted on 09/15/2006 11:06:32 AM PDT by Toby06 (Hydrogen is not a fuel source! Hydrogen is an energy storage method, like a battery.)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
Just roll whatever amount of money workers up to the age of 50 have contributed into SS into a private IRA or 401(k) plan and repeal the payroll tax.

I'd take that, but we'd have to raise tax revenue elsewhere to pay for the benefits for current recipients.

18 posted on 09/15/2006 11:10:39 AM PDT by kevkrom (War is not about proportionality. Knitting is about proportionality. War is about winning.)
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To: Toby06

Well, SS reform is generally unpopular, largely because the left keeps lying about it and the right is inexplicably unable to call them on it.


19 posted on 09/15/2006 11:13:04 AM PDT by ThinkDifferent
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To: cajun-jack


Hey funny guy. Knock it off.


20 posted on 09/15/2006 11:13:46 AM PDT by onyx (1 Billion Muslims -- IF only 10% are radical, that's still 100 Million who want to kill us.)
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