Under the White House Social Security plan, workers who opt to divert some of their payroll taxes into individual accounts would ultimately get to keep only the investment returns that exceed the rate of return that the money would have accrued in the traditional system. [snip] Under the proposal, workers could invest as much as …
If you’ve ever wondered what the origins of the “Social Security won’t be there for you” meme are, it seems to have started in 1983 with a short paper (15-page PDF) from the Cato Institute called “Achieving a Leninist Strategy,” we now know. In case you’ve forgotten, here’s Cato’s ideal view of America: The Jeffersonian …
Tom Toles has a nice cartoon about the Administration’s sudden dislike of the word “privatization” with respect to Social Security. Funny, it was just fine a few weeks ago.
Here’s one of the best explanations of how Social Security came about, why it was (and is) hated by conservatives, and what the merits of its projections have been (pretty good, on average).
The Administration is beginning to remind me of Coca-Cola back in the early 1980s. Remember when the company introduced New Coke and was forced to pull the product after screams of outrage from its customers? Now the Bushies are trying to force changes on the most successful social program the government has ever instituted, and …
Kevin Drum has a Socratic dialogue about the whole Social Security issue. If you read nothing else to get the basics, read it. It answers most of the general questions the layman (meaning someone other than economists) should have before getting deeply into the details.
I’m nowhere near as focused on Social Security as others are, but it’s important to continue to point out that the Bush Administration is lying through its teeth. Brad DeLong finds a report from CBS MarketWatch which does an excellent job of showing up those lies. As Campaign Desk says, if only the larger media …
Josh Marshall writes about SocSec again, using Bush’s statement Tuesday that most young people don’t think they’ll ever get a dime from Social Security as a springboard. He puts himself in the category of the “young people,” which seems fair (he says he’s 35) from my advanced age. According to relatively pessimistic forecasts, two government …
If you were wondering what was really behind this “plan” to “reform” Social Security, wonder no more. A leaked memo has surfaced. The idea is to destroy it, eliminating one of the country’s most cherished New Deal programs. Calling the effort “one of the most important conservative undertakings of modern times,” Peter Wehner, the deputy …
This is compassionate conservatism: A day after President Bush heralded his efforts to help the elderly cope with increased medical expenses, federal officials announced the largest premium increase in dollars in the Medicare program’s history, raising the monthly expense by $11.60 to $78.20. [snip] The rise has nothing to do with a program that will …