Why is bush pushing his unpopular SS privatization? Is SS an entitlement?

[fasttense]

Despite the fact that the bushes "fix" to Social Security, or privatization of SS, is very unpopular, he keeps making it a priority. Why??? The bushes call Social Security an entitlement, implying that SS is a benefit and not a legal or implied guarantee from the government but simply welfare for the Middle Class. Why?

"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush hopes to revive his plan to overhaul the U.S. Social Security retirement program if his Republican party keeps control of the Congress in the November midterm elections, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday."

"Bush made Social Security investment accounts a top domestic priority for his second term, arguing such a system would help young people by putting the retirement program on a more sustainable financial footing."

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2006-09-09T185922Z_01_N09399044_RTRUKOC_0_US-BUSH-SOCIALSECURITY.xml

The fake group "Women for a Social Security Choice" even states flat out - Social Security must be fixed and reformed because Social Security is trillions of dollars in debt and cannot pay future promised benefits and because none of us has a legal right to a benefit.

http://www.womenforsschoice.org/main.htm

Here is the History: In 1988 Raygun gave a huge tax cut to the wealthy reducing the top marginal income tax rate from 50% to 28%. But this brilliant move created a huge budget deficit.

At the same time, actuaries at the Social Security Administration were beginning to worry about Baby Boomers who would begin retiring in 2020 and noticed a bulge in the amount of money needed to fund the Boomer's' SS.

The solution Raygun and Greenspan came up with was to double the SS tax on the then-working Boomers. This created a giant savings account that would be used to pay for the Boomers' retirements. Prior to this double tax, SS had always paid for today's retirees with income from today's workers. We Boomers were the first generation to pay both for our parent's retirement and our own retirement at the same time.

But Raygun still had that pesky deficit. No problem suggested Greenspan, just borrow from the Boomer's savings account. Because the repukes were borrowing government money to fund government expenditures, they didn't have to list it as part of the deficit. The deficit magically disappeared. They hoped no one would notice. (Deficit's don't matter if you rip off the SS Trust Fund.)

Raygun, bush-1 and Clinton borrowed from the Boomer's savings account to hide the deficit. Trillions of dollars taxed out of the Boomers have been spent. What is left behind is a treasury debt instrument similar to what the treasury normally uses to fund the government's borrowing.

But where will the money come from (almost $2 trillion) when Boomers begin to retire?

Technically and legally, the SS Trust Fund will turn in their treasury debt instruments to the Treasury and get their money back. But with our current massive budget deficit, how can they borrow $2 trillion in a massive lump sum without bankrupting the country?

There is a crisis in SS coming but it is one created and perpetuated by the republican party.

bush-2 needs to gut Social Security before the financial crisis begins. If he privatizes it, then it will be destroyed. That is why it is a priority for the bushes. They are trying to hide their reckless disregard for the Social Security Trust Fund and the retirement of the Baby Boomers.

Is it an entitlement? Damn straight it is. We Baby Boomers have not only paid for our own SS, we have paid for our parent's. It is what Raygun and the republican party promised us for doubling our taxes. It is an implied guarantee for taking our hard earned money at twice the rate of previous years. Raygun, with the help of Greenspan, set the course to steal our Social Security. And bush-2 wants to hide that theft by destroying SS.

This is also what Thom Hartmann says in his book Screwed The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class.

[soothsayer]

1. trying to get it thru before they lose the house

[John Q. Citizen]

5. Not nearly enough time for that before the mid terms-See post #3 n/t

[Jacobin]

2. The RW wants to dismantle the New Deal

They've gone a long way toward doing that. Having starving grandparents begging on the streets is their next goal

[John Q. Citizen]

3. He's pushing it so after they steal the mid-terms they can claim that

they won because Americans are dying to privatize SS.

Conventional wisdom would hold that pushing it now before the mid-terms would hurt the Reos chances of success in the mid - terms.

The fact that is, they know they can't lose no matter how few people actually vote for them

[jwirr]

4. entitlement does not imply welfare it merely indicates that this

program is not optional according to law. He is hoping that he can push it through before we take over the house/senate but it is the stupidest move he has made yet. Even rw idiots want to know that they will be taken care of when they are older.

[rodeodance]

6. I think banks and investment companies make out big with 'reform' of SS.

[WhiteTara]

7. Social Security is NOT entitlement

it is a trust fund into which WE and our employers (sometimes one in the same) have paid since we began working at whatever age we did. We have paid 15% of our wages up to $80,000 (IIRC) every year. This is OUR money. We citizens pooled it together so it could gain interest. But what this administration (and most others) has done is to steal or "borrow" it all leaving worthless IOUs. Now they are trying to tell us this is GOVERNMENT money and we are saying we should be given a portion because we are entitled (making it sound like we are the landed gentry of medieval times.)

Social Security is the only portion the federal treasury that is owed to me and damn the bastards who are stealing our money right in front of our faces. They are so arrogant. I watched that creep Hastert stand in front of a mic and loudly sing the wrong song and off key. Too bad Nancy didn't shove him aside and sing the national anthem instead of the battle hymn of the republic. Everyone tried to pretend nothing was happening though and struggled on. It was pathetic...but I digress.

[whistle]

8. Bush has spent the surplus and like his buddy Ken Lay he

...wants to hide that fact by making the future obligations go away