Re: Social Security Reform - Today's News.........
Seems to me that the President better get a specific proposal together sooner rather than later. Lots of wild speculation if this thread is any indication. Couple of thoughts:
1. the current system is not in immediate crisis but it is unsustainable in the long run. Lots of demographic reasons we are all familiar with. Too many people living longer. Fewer workers supporting more beneficiaries.
2. system is not an insurance program. It is and always has been a welfare program. Income redistribution is a part of our society since the New Deal and that isn't going to change. Our parents and we will depend upon it to support us, in whole or in part.
3. fundamentally inescapable outcome is smaller benefits combined with higher taxes, in some combination. Greenspan says that our nation has promised more than it can deliver.
4. no liberal Democrat has ever had the guts to face up to the problem. Bush ran on a promise to come to grips with this and got re-elected with a mandate for change. Get over it. Give the guy a little credit for having the courage to step up to the plate. At least wait to see what his plan is for crying out loud!
5. for a bunch of folks who are staking the next 30 or 40 years of their lives on the unstoppable upward march of he stock market, there doesn't appear to be a whole lot of confidence about the outcome here.
6. I am glad that the President has initiated this discussion. I have my first grandchild coming in July and I hope he inherits a viable system that will work for him and not collar him with the costs of a generation of whiney old farts trying to sustain the unsustainable.
7. You got a problem with SS reform? Don't blame a courageous conservative Republican president who is going to try to fix a system that (whether you want to believe it or not) needs fixing. Blame FDR and the New Deal Democrats who set up a welfare program that as it turned out cannot pay the bills. But we as a Nation are now committed. We all are now dependent upon it and we must all now pay for it one way or another.
Donner
Seems to me that the President better get a specific proposal together sooner rather than later. Lots of wild speculation if this thread is any indication. Couple of thoughts:
1. the current system is not in immediate crisis but it is unsustainable in the long run. Lots of demographic reasons we are all familiar with. Too many people living longer. Fewer workers supporting more beneficiaries.
2. system is not an insurance program. It is and always has been a welfare program. Income redistribution is a part of our society since the New Deal and that isn't going to change. Our parents and we will depend upon it to support us, in whole or in part.
3. fundamentally inescapable outcome is smaller benefits combined with higher taxes, in some combination. Greenspan says that our nation has promised more than it can deliver.
4. no liberal Democrat has ever had the guts to face up to the problem. Bush ran on a promise to come to grips with this and got re-elected with a mandate for change. Get over it. Give the guy a little credit for having the courage to step up to the plate. At least wait to see what his plan is for crying out loud!
5. for a bunch of folks who are staking the next 30 or 40 years of their lives on the unstoppable upward march of he stock market, there doesn't appear to be a whole lot of confidence about the outcome here.
6. I am glad that the President has initiated this discussion. I have my first grandchild coming in July and I hope he inherits a viable system that will work for him and not collar him with the costs of a generation of whiney old farts trying to sustain the unsustainable.
7. You got a problem with SS reform? Don't blame a courageous conservative Republican president who is going to try to fix a system that (whether you want to believe it or not) needs fixing. Blame FDR and the New Deal Democrats who set up a welfare program that as it turned out cannot pay the bills. But we as a Nation are now committed. We all are now dependent upon it and we must all now pay for it one way or another.
Donner