Cutting us off at the knees
The latest from the House of Lies last night included what was pitched as an attempt to save Social Security, complete with a magnanimous attempt to protect the lowest income workers, was disingenuous at best. When one examines the plan, one sees that it's in part an attempt to pit the middle class against the poor by lumping them in with the truly rich. For all the ostensible concern over people who would be retiring in poverty, nothing he is proposing will help any of that, and when taken with his budget's slashing of health, education grant and job training programs it's - at best - baffling. Either the man is both stupid and grossly misinformed by the people writing his policy for him (certainly well within the realm of possibility) , or he's a soulless liar.
Most of the Social Security shortfall problem could be addressed by raising the Social Security wage cap, regardless of the agenda-driven folks at the Heritage Foundation telling you otherwise. It would certainly keep the system solvent much longer. It would also help if the funds taken in for Social Security were actually put away and safely invested for that purpose, rather than simply forming a pool that the current benefits are drawn leaving the rest of the cash to be sucked away by other parts of the federal government. In that respect they need an ant, not a grasshopper, to play accountant.
Actually, I do like a great deal of the talk about personal accounts, but not as the ridiculously-pitched solution to a social security shortfall. These are completely separate programs. Yes, encouraging US citizens to save for the future is a good thing, and if the government can do things to encourage it, all the better -- but that's not the solution to the problem of coming shortfalls for Social Security funding. To claim that it is is not another attempt to pit the middle class against the poor, it's more simply a lie.
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