That appears to be the continuing strategy for Senator Jim DeMint and other congressional privatizers intent on passing Social Security private accounts, whether the American people support them or not. You have to wonder, if privatization is such a great idea why do supporters go to such lengths to hide their true goals?
The latest privatization ploy comes under the guise of "stopping the raid" on the Social Security trust fund. Senator DeMint says he’ll "force a vote" on his amendment creating a "reserve fund" in Social Security. What he doesn’t mention in his news release is that this newly created "reserve fund", actually just diverts money from the existing Social Security trust fund to a new fund to create private accounts. Senator Demint's amendment is really just a privatization sleight of hand. Rather than "stopping the raid" as promised, this legislation allows the trust fund to be raided for a different purpose...the creation of private accounts.
The truth is the DeMint amendment is just a rework of the failed Bush privatization plan. It would divert money out of Social Security to fund private accounts, increasing federal outlays and requiring significant cuts in Social Security’s guaranteed benefits to foot the bill. All of this, so that future retirees can take their stable Social Security benefits on a risky Wall Street roller coaster ride.
Our letter to Congress has more details about what this amendment really includes and our analysis on the same amendment when it was introduced three years ago is linked here.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Maybe if We Don’t Call it Social Security Privatization No One will Notice...
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All of this, so that future retirees can take their stable Social Security benefits on a risky Wall Street roller coaster ride.
I am one of those future retirees. I agree with you that Social Security benefits are stable. Unfortunately, they're stable in a very bad way. At this point, I am GUARANTEED a negative rate of return from Social Security. Forget about the stock market, I can trivially beat Social Security with a high-yield, FDIC-insured savings account. But with the S&P 500 averaging over 6% real return, I'd much rather take my chances there.
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