Wrong Idea, Wrong Time... Again.

The next Biggest Thing in politics is Social Security reform. If you go all the way back to my first posting on here, you can see that I oppose privatizing Social Security. That's not altogether true. I do support that effort... however! I must qualify that statement. This is not the time, nor is this the way it should be done.

The problem with Social Security right now is cash flow, pure and simple. When this mandatory state insurance was first instituted, there were more working folks being taxed that retiring folks getting paid out of the insurance fund. So there was no problem.

However, we're getting to the point where all the Baby Boomers are retiring in droves... and that's a problem, because it's turned the cash flow 180 degrees. We now have more retiring, therefore drawing from the fund, than those working and paying into it.

Bush's plan is to let those working folks set aside a portion of the taxes they pay to the Social Security Administration into a personal account, where they can invest it in the stock market. Great idea... except for the fact that there would be even less money being paid into the SSA fund. So that means the government would have to borrow even more money!

Privatization should be done... eventually. But there are different ways it can be done. One was brought to popularity by former Vice President Al Gore. The famous "lockbox" scenario, where the Social Security funds are protected from being raided by other spending sprees in Congress. But shouldn't it be that way already?

The Supreme Court had ruled, a few years back, that you are not entitled to the money you put into the SSA fund. I don't think that's right either. If the government forces you to save your money while you're working, so you don't have to eat cat food when you get old, then you should get the money you put in, plus whatever low-yield interest you may have earned, based on the government bond the money would buy. That's kinda private. They could also, someday, allow the users to invest part of it into less conservative stock options or mutual funds. Kinda like a big ole 401k, which for the most part, do pretty well, especially when you look over a 10 year period.

The solution, for now, is to raise the taxes that put Social Security checks in the hands of old folks. You could also raise the qualifying retirement age ever so slightly. Both of these would be temporary alterations, which can be changed back to the way they were, once there is more balance in the retiring-to-working persons ratio.

At least Bush got something right. He's proposed, I believe, raising the taxes on the rich in order to help privatize the SSA funds... well at least he got something partly right!

In other news, they found some more missing ballots in Washington's gubernatorial race, again in liberal King County. Those could be the votes that tipped the race in favour of Democrat Christina Gregoire. But, naturally, Republicans don't like that. They don't want Rossi to lose legitimately... heaven forbid we count all the legal votes!! Apparently there is a Washington Court that sided with the Republicans that they shouldn't be counted. Democrats have, thankfully, appealled to a higher court. I'll be sure to keep you updated!

As always,

the Blue Box Citizen
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