"The real threat to Social Security doesn't come from giving young people this opportunity. The threat comes from the Bush Administration's plan to load illegal aliens into the Social Security system, an idea that would skyrocket costs and bankrupt the system at the same time that baby boomers flood into their benefit years."
This isn't the only problem with Social Security, AuntB. As you probably know, the Trust Fund is supposed to have around $1.3 trillion in cash in its accounts, but in fact it has that amount in non-marketable bonds, the cash having been taken.
Now obviously those bonds have the good name of the US Government on them, and one would not call that into question. But it is still a very big liability, and growing by the year.
One hopes that the Administration's initiative to bring young people into private insurance will stop the hole getting bigger, because the less money that is paid into the Fund, the smaller the surplus, and the less can be appropriated for shall we say "other purposes".
But it does mean that the day of reckoning becomes more finite.
How will it be paid for?
How, indeed.