Bush/Repubs push for 100% privatization SSI/benefits cuts

[DebJ]

The fact that this completely conservative article was published in the NYT is all the more disconcerting.
-Last week, the talk was putting 1/3 of all SSI receipts into private accounts, which would increase the Debt by 2 Trillion dollars.
-A few days ago, talks escalated to 2/3 of all SSI receipts.
-Now, the choice is presented as putting ALL SSI receipts into 'private' accounts: which is to say, elimination of SSI. And what, DOUBLING THE ALREADY HISTORIC NATIONAL DEBT?

WE'VE GOT 30 YEARS TO FIX THIS. NO ACTIONS NOW.


G.O.P. Divided as Bush Views Social Security
January 6, 2005
By RICHARD W. STEVENSON
WASHINGTON, Jan. 5 - >
> Mr. Bush intends to step up his involvement in the issue in
> coming days. He is meeting with Republican leaders at the
> White House on Thursday and giving a speech next week.
>
(SNIP)
>
> The main issues, they said, are whether Mr. Bush should
> back a proposal to reduce substantially the guaranteed
> government retirement benefit through a change in the way
> the benefit is calculated, and whether workers should be
> allowed to contribute all of their Social Security payroll
> taxes into their accounts or only a part.
>
> The indications so far, they said, are that Mr. Bush will
> stick with his inclination to reduce scheduled benefits to
> assure the retirement system's long-term solvency, and that
> he will back smaller accounts than many of his supporters
> would like. But to bridge the gap between the sides in the
> debate, they said, the administration is considering
> several proposals, including phasing in increases in the
> size of the accounts over many years or allowing
> lower-income workers to invest a higher proportion of their
> wages in private accounts than upper-income people would be
> permitted to invest.
>
> One group of Republicans is pressing the administration to
> make the accounts as big as possible, preferably permitting
> the investment of all or nearly all of the 6.2 percent levy
> on wages that individuals contribute to Social Security.
> (Under all proposals, employers would continue to pay an
> additional 6.2 percent tax on each employee's wages up to a
> wage cap that this year is $90,000.)
>
(SNIP)_ >
> But some Republican activists said they were concerned that
> the White House's approach would leave the party's right
> wing disheartened. If Mr. Bush chooses too cautious an
> approach, "the enthusiasm among a lot of conservatives will
> wane," said Stephen Moore, a conservative economist and
> activist who just founded an advocacy group, the Free
> Enterprise Foundation, to push action on issues including
> Social Security and tax reform.
>
>
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/06/politics/06social.html?ex=1106066368&ei=1&en=528a6147e0d7a5e7

[SoCalDem]

1. The wall street bandits need more money..and in turn, will donate

even MORE to the repubes if this comes to pass :(

[punpirate]

2. Oh, yes...

... and you can be sure, in the final version of the bill, there will be a reduction in the amount business co-pays into the fund.... Otherwise, there's little incentive for businesses except Wall Street to get behind it. There's a reason why the NAM and the National CofC are pushing hard for privatization of SS. That will be a provision slipped in during conference at midnight before the vote--in typical Repug fashion.

[oscar111]

4. and then allow 1 hour 4 dems:NEW ZEALAND noncontributory ss is solution

one hour to read fifteen pounds of paper.. that is the weight of one copy of the massive budget bill.

High school antics.

A SOLUTION TO MULL OVER:
========================
N ZEALAND pioneered

NONCONTRIBUTORY pensions.

I suppose that means the "fund" never runs low. General revenues probably are the source for ss there.

General revenues? Truman's ninety percent top rate, would add 2. 7 Trillion to our fed budget, enought to give each retired coulple 1O8,OOO / year.

That's dollars, folks. Retirement could be double the working average income of about 5O K/family.

What ss crisis? Look to N Zealand for answers.

if their own gang of RW'ers hasnt chopped it away by now.

[radwriter0555]

9. Yep bush banker pals will steal the SS $, then WE the taxpayers get to pay

it back and get DOUBLE DIPPED... just like the savings and loan scam bush senior invented under reagan, that NEIL BUSH made 7 MILLION off of, and walked away with, unscathed.

[DebJ]

3. They are trying to disguise his absolute HUBRIS by couching

it in terms of negotiation:

it's like choosing between which method you want to push mass suicides of the elderly and disabled. THIS is negotiation?

[The Zanti Regent]

5. ...but the CHURCHES will take care of the needy,

SURE THEY WILL....

If you're stupid enough to believe that, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd love to sell you!

[oscar111]

6. churches have said "we're overwhelmed now"

And a million sleep on the streets now. Churches cannot do more.. they cant even shoulder the current burden of helping the poor`.

Never in history have churches erased poverty, to the best of my kmnowledge.

for that matter, anyone know of any case where poverty was erased?

[hollowdweller]

7. I'm confused. SSI is a needs based disability program $'d from Gen. Fund

Are you talking Disability or Retirement?

[oscar111]

10. must mean ss pension, not ssi

you are right to be confused.

supplemental security income is SSI.

I think the vertical bar which looks like an "I" was somewhere on a site, and got included when pasted here. The bar is used to seperate title lines soetimes.

article only seems to be about ss pensions.

relax , friend.

[LynnTheDem]

8. Tiawan bullets are cheaper than maintaining SS.

When Dem, Indie AND REPUB parents & grandparents are homeless & starving in the streets, they can just be rounded up and shot into a mass grave. Old people are just a useless drain on the rest of us.

Ever so much cheaper than using the required 0.54% of GDP to maintain SS until the 2100s.

Of course, what we're spending right now in IRAQ would maintain SS until the 2100s too, but we love war! WAR WAR WAR!!! FOUR MORE WARS!!! KILL KILL KILL!!!!



*If you have to ask if this is sarcasm, then you have to get a smack upside your head.

[oscar111]

12. Hmlessness is getting rid of them evem cheaper

old folks are among the hmless.

Hmless die at three times the normal rate.. so it kills 1OO OOO / year. out of three million involved with hmlessness over a years time.

disabled vets also among the hmless. And newborns.

[radwriter0555]

11. Like 911, bush is going to kill us to save us; with SS he's creating a

problem, where none existed before, so he can pretend to ride in and play hero.