Monday, May 19, 2008

The Social Security Scare Game Starts

It's safe to say that Obama is now the official Democratic nominee. He's started telling seniors that the mean old Republicans are out to ruin Social Security. I've been hearing Democratic candidates make this same pitch my entire adult life and the rhetoric doesn't change:

"Let me be clear, privatizing Social Security was a bad idea when George W. Bush proposed it, it's a bad idea today," Mr. Obama said. "That's why I stood up against this plan in the Senate and that's why I won't stand for it as president."

Mr. Bush proposed a Social Security plan in 2005 that focused on creating private accounts for younger workers, but it never came up for a vote in Congress. Democrats strongly opposed the idea and few Republicans embraced it.

Mr. Obama said Mr. McCain would push to raise the retirement age for collecting Social Security benefits or trim annual cost-of-living increases. Mr. Obama has rejected both ideas as solutions to the funding crisis projected for Social Security in favor of making higher-income workers pay more into the system.

"We have to protect Social Security for future generations without pushing the burden onto seniors who have earned the right to retire in dignity," he said.


Social Security is a giant Ponzi scheme and Obama is right - the only way to keep the game going is to collect more from workers to pay for retirees. That's because we have fewer workers per retiree than when Social Security was started. I suppose it is possible to tax your way out of the problem, but the cost will be higher than the Obamas of the world imagine. I guess politicians will just keep pushing us down the road to European socialism, facts be damned. Higher unemployment, lousy healthcare for all, and massive debt. Yeah, that's the ticket.

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