Keep Wall Street away from Social Security

[struggle4progress]

BY GEORGE N. SPITZ
George N. Spitz, a candidate for New York City Council, is a retired state auditor of city programs. James Klurfeld is off.
January 28, 2005

President George W. Bush is trying to create a sense of crisis by contending that the Social Security trust fund will run out of money in 2042. This should come as no surprise because 10 years ago President Bill Clinton warned that the Social Security surplus would disappear in 2029.

President Bush proposes to solve the problem by permitting younger workers to privately invest a portion of their Social Security taxes in diversified funds approved by the government. President Clinton indicated a preference for allowing the Social Security fund trustees to directly purchase stocks, similar to how city and state comptrollers manage pension funds. One Democratic proposal called for the trustees to invest 40 percent of the surplus in the stock market.

Any privatization plan would provide a bonanza for Wall Street, enriching brokers, consultants and money managers, not to mention lawyers when stocks go belly-up as Enron and WorldCom did. Elected officials also benefit. As we have seen in New York, city and state comptrollers have received substantial campaign contributions from beneficiaries of their investment policies.

Before President Franklin Roosevelt signed the original Social Security Act in 1935, he insisted that the surpluses be held only in U.S. government bonds backed by the full faith and credit of the government. President Roosevelt was well aware of the 1929 crash of the stock market, which had only recovered a portion of its losses by 1935. His prudent policy has worked well indeed. <snip>

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpspi284127296jan28,0,1277331.story?coll=ny-viewpoints-headlines

[Coastie for Truth]

1. It is time to repeal

1. The Gingrich-Oxley "Glass Steagle Act Repeal"

2. The Gingrich-Oxley "Securities Litigation Reform Act"

Both part of Gingrich's "Contract on America" - we have seen how the corporatists and the Neo-cons are using these two Gingrich pieces of legislation to destroy the backbone of America - the American middle class.

[sarcasmo]

2. I second the motion. Keep Wall Street away from Social Security