Actually I do think we have a ship headed for the rocks. And I think
that is crap.

The way I see it is like this. What Congress is doing is something
like this. Say I am working and I make almost enough to get by pretty
well. Well I ought to have some savings for retirement. So I buy a
lockbox and put in say 15% of what I make. Now that is a good thing.
But then I decide to buy a new car. So I do that, and now I don't have
quite enough money. But I have a great idea. I will just take money
from that box where I have it for retirement, and I will put in an IOU
every month when I take the money out for the car. This will work
until I need that money for retirement in say 2017.

Congress is spending all that money that is going into the Social
Security trust fund.
The Social Security trust fund is not backed by any physical assets.
The point is that those Social Security trust funds are only backed by
the government's ability to raise money by taxes. There isn't any
bricks or mortor backing those government bonds. So when Social
Security needs to cash in those bonds in large quanities, taxes are
going to have to go up and Social Security benefits will go down. You
can only sell bonds if there is a reasonably expectation that they well
be redeemed. My congressman is going to protect Social Security now
and let someone else figure out how to get out of the mess. He will
have stayed in office long enough to collect his government pension.

Bush's privatization plan pulls some of that money out of reach of
Congress. Which is why so many Congressmen are against it.


Dan