Saturday, February 26, 2005
Bush's Boyhood Dream:
Wiping Out SSI?
For Bush, a Long Embrace of Social Security Plan0 comments
It's staggering—but not really surprising—to learn here that George W. Bush, the silver-spoon scion of a financial services industry family, has been hungering to dismantle the Social Security Administration since at least the early 1970s.
Perhaps this explains a bit about his AWOL years—he was off studying Goldwater theory. I guess that counts as time served.
But three points jump out of this article at us with alarming speed and power:
1. Thirty-odd years or more of holding "the end of SSI" as a political mantra, and he still can't offer any specifics on just how his plan would be set up, and how it will pay for itself.
Hmmmm. That's an awfully long time to still not get to that chapter in the book.
If he's honestly not clear on the specifics after all this time, that in itself is chilling beyond belief.
However, if he does know for certain what his vision is going to look like and the impact it will have on the U.S. landscape, he's obviously not saying because he knows full well the American people would run him out of town on a rail if they knew the details. So, better to keep it vague and scare people into embracing "the plan" before you spill the beans. Invent a need, then fill it. Simple marketing.
2. While he's always happily bragged about being a C student, I do fear for his grasp of math. It seems he's been claiming that SSI would go belly up "within 10 years!"—ever since 1978.
This we will assume is the triumph of ideology over mathematics. It's simply a better political plan to him than it is an economic necessity.
3. We can also assume that he assumes that future prospects look rosy for the ability of those who think like he does to hold onto the reins of power. That's why he's hired Karl Rove, to assure things stay that way.
So what will the odds be, then, of there being another hideous, down market when YOU go to retire? One like the disasterous market from 2001-2003 that wiped out so much of the value of your retirement holdings in your 401(k) and IRA accounts?
If you remember those first two years of the Bush administration, you'll clearly, if painfully, recall the absolute free-fall all the markets were in. Stocks losing upwards of 60% to 90% of their value. Others wiped out entirely. How much did you lose? More importantly, how little has been rebuilt?
Even scarier, remember how totally clueless, inept and uncreative Bush's financial team was in trying to staunch the financial bleeding. They didn't even try. No sign of triage care emerged from this group whatsoever. All they could stammer was "Got Tax Cuts?" until the markets slid fully and hit their own bottom, then slowly began coming up the other side, as stocks always do if left alone. No thanks to Bush's crack (or rather, on-crack) economic team. They stood aside powerlessly as the cycle played itself out and Americans lost thousands upon thousands from their nest-eggs.
Remember how the administration then attempted, during the recovery, to claim credit for what were basic economic and market cycles and principles in action?
It's no wonder Bush was looking for terrorists under the furniture. They're much less scary than the prospect of John Snow attempting to think.
Since the vast majority of recessions occur under Republican administrations, we are forced to assume that future downturns will be ineptly handled as well.
The prospect of like-minded administrations standing between you and your starving in the gutter seems rather a reach, I'm afraid.
posted by Gotham 9:03 PM
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