Saturday, January 08, 2005

Republicans have a “hidden agenda” to make you rich

So says Patrick Ruffini who condemns the whole premise of even a perfectly solvent Social Security system:

The status quo that Democrats are so desperately defending is this: an average benefit of that's a paltry $926 a month, $11,112 a year. Seventy years of New Deal largesse, and this is the best you can do for seniors with no other retirement savings? The opportunity to make life dramatically better through significantly higher Social Security benefits lies before us, and your "solution" is simply to postpone doom?

Fiscal realities aside, that's a choice that's morally indefensible.
I’ve said many times before: if today you tried to impose a 6.2% tax on Americans with the promise that (maybe) they’ll get some help in their old age, it would never become law. Isn’t it past time to bring a Depression-era program in line with modern times?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Personally, I'm not all that impressed with what's been leaked of Bush's plan. Capping the private investment at $1,400 per year? I put five or six times that in my 401k alone. But I guess it's a start. Kind of the SS equivalent of "Don't Ask Don't Tell" or "Civil Unions." Not the end state, just the limit of what is politically possible.