Burnt Orange Report

Everything in a nutshell

By Nathan Nance

Guest post by Nate Nance

Over at Political Animal Kevin Drum has some nice visual aids that explain why the possible Bush plan for Social Security "reform" doesn't actually improve the system.

Kevin uses the Congressional Budget Office's own projections and comparisons to Plan 2, which is what is widely believed to be the foundation of Bush's partial-privatization scheme. Assuming the CBO's conservative projections of economic growth hold true. Assuming the SS trust fund goes bankrupt in 2053 and benfits are suddenly cut by 20%, you're still going to be better off with traditional Social Security than with Plan 2's draconian cuts due to price indexing and private accounts.

I think the economy is going to grow more than the CBO's projection, I think the revenue base will expand and I think we will eventually start paying down the deficit with surpluses again making traditional Social Security all but immortal. Give it a sword and push it off a cliff, it will still be around.

AARP held a press conference today to discuss their legislative agenda for the year and they put Social Security at the top of the list. Their Web site has some suggestions as to what should be done to "strengthen" Social Security and not dismantle it. They are advocating minor changes phased in over a long period of time to balance out the equation, which fiscally makes sense to me.

Also, hat tip to Greg for pointing out that some of us are happy that the DLC and Third Way are opposed to privatization.

Guest post from Nathan Nance. He can be reached at nate_nance@yahoo.com