FY 2007 Budget Proposal for Social Security Privatization, Again

As David Sanger of the New York Times wrote of the Bush FY 2007 budget proposals:

"The budget bears all the hallmarks of the Bush presidency, putting national security and tax cuts above all other considerations and gradually tightening or reducing spending on programs, including educational loans, farm subsidies and national parks." See Bush's $2.77 Trillion Budget Calls for Medicare Cuts.

Thus it should not be surprising to anyone that Mr. Bush has again trotted out  budget  breaking  privatization "reforms" for Social Security.  In spite of a State of the Union speech proposing a bipartisan commission to consider ways to ensure Social Security's solvency for years to come, the FY 2007 budget proposals include a plan to privatize Social Security at a cost of $700 billion (over the first seven years).  See this report on OMB Watch.  Although little noticed in the media, the plan would provide for workers to divert funds to private accounts beginning at $1,100 in 2009 and increasing by $100 increments through 2016.

Congressman Steny Hoyer (D-Md) had this to say about the reappearance of Bush's privatization plan.

“This is absolutely stunning. ... Last year, the country emphatically rejected the President’s effort to privatize this critical program. Instead of working in a bipartisan fashion to find a common sense solution to Social Security’s solvency, the President’s budget embraces an ill-advised, unpopular plan that would turn a guarantee into a gamble.”  Hoyer Budget Release.

For other commentary on Bush's "stealth" Social Security privatization proposal, see this Washington Post article; this report on SeniorJournal.com, which provides links to the Social Security section of the budget document; and this brief report at PAFCO education fund.

The FY 2007 budget also proposes reductions in Social Security benefits by $2.2 billion over five years and $6.3 billion over the ten-year budget period.  See this report on the FY 2007 budget from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.  If the budget proposals are carried out as planned, 1,900 Social Security Administration positions nationwide would be cut through attrition, possibly hampering the SSA's ability to respond appropriately to changes in status of eligible retirees.  See this report.  The CBPP report notes additional changes that could hurt vulnerable populations, including elimination of the lump-sum death benefit of $255 that can help families pay for funerals and an apparently rigid requirement that school-age children attend school in order to receive benefits, even if there were reasonable cause for the children to miss school, such as mental disability.  Grassley, Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, made clear that those heartless changes had no chance of passage.  See this Social Security News report and the linked AP report.

(The CBPP report, by the way, is well worth reading beyond its section on Social Security.  It provides a good overview of the budget proposals, and a noteworthy evaluation of the various ways in which these budget proposals are deceptive as to their ultimate impact on the U.S. economy.) 

The Bush Social Security privatization plan is old wine in new bottles.  The Cato Institute, of course, has been pushing privatization of Social Security for a decade.  See, e.g., this 1997 Cato Institute piece proposing that all workers 32 and under divert almost 50% of their Social Security taxes into private accounts, with the shortfalls in paying benefits to be made up by additional federal debt.

The solution to the health care and retirement needs of Americans will not be found in programs that merely transfer risk to workers while putting more money in the pockets of the wealthiest Americans.  Instead, Congress and the White House should work together to find a reasonable solution to fund the needs of Social Security beneficiaries in the years to come.  The most obvious one is to increase or eliminate the cap and to have it apply to capital gains as well as to ordinary wage income.  The choice is simple--reduce benefits for those who rely on Social Security as their primary income, or have better-off Americans pay their fair share of the tax burden for Social Security by paying  tax at the same flat rate proportionately on all of their income that ordinary Americans pay on all of theirs.  It seems clear that having wealthy Americans pay their fair share is the solution most in line with American values.

Comments

[Timothy B foley]

Don't Even Mention Selling Our Government.

[Rev. C. Walking Turtle Mann (ULC)]

Timothy B Foley did inscribe on the fabric of the Web on April 14, 2006 at 11:32 AM: "Don't Even Mention Selling Our Government."

On the contrary, Friend Foley: BLARE THE REALITY EVERY DAY ALL DAY LONG IN MANNERS AND BY MEANS THAT RELIABLY AWAKEN THE TELLY-HYPNO'D REMAINING 32%! Don't wait for someone else to organize a big protest parade; that's just a bullshit copout, d00d!

Get the facts in order in your own mind. Stand in front of a mirror and "imagineer" likely convos - and imagineer to win by means of persistent aplication of genuine truth alone; noo bullshitting allowed. (Not even a little.) Just don't be afraid to talk to the mirror if it helps at all. (It usually does.)

Make ready. Practice makes perfect. You have Internet - just bookmark businessweek.com's article - search the bw site on the term "Negroponte" and bookmark the article.

Educate yourself. Learn what a "Fifth Column False Flag Action" entails. Then match up the broken edges. Connect the dots. Follow the money. Go Figger. You shall find your terrorists at the end of that trail, sure and reliable as stink on poo.

You ain't stupid either.

Then BLARE IT! KEEP BLARING IT! (Civilly, of course. No cussin'.) But BRING THEM AROUND! TELL ONE AND ALL: "YOU HAVE BEEN H-A-D! DIVEST! DIVEST!"

Farmin' out the entire Social Security Trust Fund to a Top Secretized Wall Street is just another certain means to harm our country. Some people never do stop thinking 'em up, do they?

Gettin' out of the economic investment entirely is the only way left to win when pinstripers make money off Uranium Futures investment by day and organize phony weekend "PeaceFest" events by night. Just let them eat their karma all by themselves. We just might die sooner. But that ilk'll die abjectly miserable as the DU settles in their bodies - and they realize at last that it was THEIR DU that's now killing them while their grand-childrens' brains grow out their aching eye-sockets and there is no way to pay for the doctor to help 'em because of what Grandpa did all day at work every day instead of doing the Right Thing.

Divest NOW - the soul one saves is likely one's very own. Pray for both all the children - and for peace. Then act accordingly. MAKE and KEEP it REAL.

Try to be a good friend to the poor deluded ones while you are at it. More can be won through patient friendship than with any manner of condemnatory vitriol, yadig?

Cool. Peace. Heaven bless thee. I'm out.