If SS benefits will have to be cut by a quarter or thereabouts, some Republican politicians should propose such action as part of their 2008 platform. How many seats in the House and Senate will be changed from D to R as a result of their adoption of the "quarter or thereabouts SS check reduction" plan?
No need to propose anything. Lack of action, guaranteed by Democratic refusal to reform SS, will bring it about automatically.
Why should a Republican propose the democrats' bitter medicine? Benefit cuts and higher taxes are the dem plan. The Republican approach avoids most of the pain. Yes, there will be costs to finance the transition to investment accounts, but these are far less than the eventual costs of doing nothing.
I do not want to attribute motives to you, but clearly the democrats are playing hidden agenda politics on the issue. Why would they prefer lower to higher benefits and higher to lower taxes? It is crazy unless retirement security is secondary to other goals. I am driven to the conclusion that democrats want people dependent on a government program. They would rather have retirees poor and dependent than financially indendent and therefore more likely to vote Republican. SS is simply a way to organize and discipline their base vote.
I also suspect that the hard-left types desperately want to avoid moving all Americans into the owner/investor class, even on a small scale. Socialist and anti-corporate tub-thumping will lose most of its appeal when the wrench turners and bus drivers start checking their accounts every morning. The fascist left doesn't want broad-based ownership of wealth; it wants government ownership of wealth.