Where would our Seniors be now if we had let McBush privatize Social Security as they wanted too?

"As it happens, though, not that long ago we had a rare political moment in this country, a moment where the public sat up and took notice of economic policy -- and spoke out and made its voice heard too. When George W. Bush made it to term #2, he decided to try to privatize social security to reward his supporters on Wall Street with a new source of capital, customers, and fees. (Those would be the same people whose firms are now cratering under the weight of the bad debt they recklessly took on while Republican regulators looked the other way.) But as it turned out, we Americans were not about to let our elected representatives turn over our social security taxes to Wall Street financiers to gamble with if it meant losing the guaranteed income that has allowed millions upon millions of American seniors to live out their sunset years with at least a basic measure of dignity.

But while ordinary Americans spoke out, John McCain stood with Bush (hugged him awkwardly in public, even), against the American people. In fact, just six months ago, McCain again let slip his fondness for privatization.

I have been scratching my head why this has not been talked about more, especially since Obama has been having trouble winning votes among seniors. There may well be some good reason I'm missing why it hasn't been a top argument thus far.

But now that you can't look at a newspaper or TV screen without seeing the mayhem on Wall Street, it's time to remind Americans what the world would look like if John McCain was in charge of our economic policy. Plenty of people are losing plenty of their retirement savings as it is. But if we had let Bush and McCain privatize social security, some of those people would be losing a lot more. And a lot of other people with less retirement savings would be hurting even more, because they depend on social security to cover basic needs. "
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-n..._b_126968.html

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"I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center." - Kurt Vonnegut

This is just another example of why we can't let neoliberal fanatics like McCain ruin our economy even further.

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'A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward'. - Franklin D. Roosevelt

http://i38.tinypic.com/716ahj.gif

Here's the flip flopper in his own words on the subject:

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"I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center." - Kurt Vonnegut

There should be no doubt in anyone's mind that McCain is ill informed 'n not qualified to lead this country.

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McCain on National Security
Sarah Speaks

I did not support Bush's proposal, not because of privitization but because it didn't go far enough. We need to phase out Social Security because it is a bad social program and Americans simply can't afford bad social programs.

Those that are using the current stock market as an excuse to come out against phasing out Social Security show a complete lack of understanding of investing for retirement. A diversified portfolio that changes over time is what every investment advisor tells their clients. I'm 59 and looking at retiring in a few years. Have the recent stock market declines hurt me? Not really. When I reached 55 I moved most of my money into secure assets. One of those I selected was gold and gold went up almost 10% on Wednesday. A 10% increase in value in a single day is hardly something to be scoffed at.

The truth is I didn't make a dime when gold went up and I didn't lose a dime when stocks went down and I do still own some stocks. So how can the stocks go down and gold go up and I didn't make or lose a dime? Well, it's simple, I haven't sold anything and the only time you gain or lose is when you liquidate your assets.

The fact that is indisputable is that for the same money that goes to Social Security an individual could afford to buy disability insurance, term life insurance, and invest in retirement accounts and reap up to a ten-fold increase in retirement income while still enjoying all of the benefits Social Security offers. A ten-fold increase in retirement income is huge. Someone receiving $500/mo now could be living on $5000/mo had the same dollars been invested as opposed to being sent to the government so they could spend it. A $2000/mo Social Security retirement payment could be a $20,000/mo income based upon private investments. Even if this money was all invested in the Dow Jone Industrials the Dow would have to tank from about 13,000 to about 1,300 for a person to be as bad off as Social Security. Of course no portfolio would ever put 100% into stocks and even then they would have to actually sell the stocks at the low point to break even with Social Security..

More importantly, this money would belong to the individual and not subject to the whim of Congress.

Let everyone understand that short term market trends to not affect long term retirement investments. This is a bogus argument from all logical standpoints.

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Soldiers swear to protect and defend the Constitution with their lives.

Politicians swear to protect and defend the Constitution with someone else's life.

It's "SSI"......

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"The only title superior to President of the United States of America is Citizen."

Did you know the word "gullible" isn't in the dictionary?

Tresha quote:
I'm not sure why you are under the impression that because someone has mental health problems, they are incapable of intelligent and rational thought.

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"I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center." - Kurt Vonnegut

No, the problem is that the Social Security System is so financially unstable that it is either going to fail from bankruptcy or be devalued to the point that it is completely worthless.

I doubt that we will have a depression like the 1930's. For one thing the margins for stock purchases have been dramatically increased. Even more important is that it is unlikely that we will have a panic on the stock market that is concurrent with a 6 year dust bowl in the mid West which really was the issue for the Depression. The conditions that created the dust bowl predominately don't exist today as we generaly pump water from the aquifer as opposed to depending on rain. We also have to look at the policies that FDR implemented that extended the depression well beyond what it would have been had he not become involved.

Even the most pessimistic economic projections have all of our problems resolved in a year or so at the maximum. This is a short term market adjustement and correction to bad lending and borrowing policies. It is really nothing to get excited about.

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Soldiers swear to protect and defend the Constitution with their lives.

Politicians swear to protect and defend the Constitution with someone else's life.

How? Do we raise everyone taxes to repay the money borrowed from Social Security? Can you afford a $1,000 to possibly $5,000 increase in your personal income tax next year to replace the funds already spent? Even if the money is replaced the system is still scheduled to fail.

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Soldiers swear to protect and defend the Constitution with their lives.

Politicians swear to protect and defend the Constitution with someone else's life.

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"I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center." - Kurt Vonnegut