Just how desperate is the GOP? TELL me this is satire!

[Rose Siding]

GOP Senators to Propose New Tack On Social Security
Surplus Would Fund New Accounts

Key Republican lawmakers, scrambling to keep President Bush's Social Security proposals afloat, plan next week to embrace an idea that many have avoided thus far: funding personal retirement accounts with surplus revenue that now pays for other government programs.

The strategy is controversial because it would create new budget problems. Either the diverted money would have to be replaced with new taxes, or Congress would have to slash programs now funded by Social Security's excess payroll taxes.

Republicans said yesterday that they will address those concerns later. First, they said, they want to create momentum and enthusiasm for Bush's proposed private accounts, which are so unpopular with congressional Democrats and with many Americans that some supporters privately consider them in deep peril.

"This is an opportunity to get the ball rolling, a step in the right direction," said a Senate GOP leadership aide who spoke on background because the plan's official outlines are scheduled for a Capitol Hill news conference Tuesday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/17/AR2005061701442.html

Doesn't that TOTALLY reveal their real motives for privatization?: To weaken SS on the way to phase-out.

And they'll address the budget concerns LATER? What a shell game!

[dalloway]

1. I heard somewhere their exit strategy on SS is to make the plan

bloated, complex and unworkable so it languishes and rots and they can forget about it.

[LightningFlash]

2. Oh my god this is sad.....

No no no way in hell.....That can't be serious. That will just make social security fall even faster and completely dissolve. I would never allow that to happen....Holy shit, that is unbelievably disturbing to me.

[moobu2]

3. They will do anything to destroy Social Security

That's what they want, they want to destroy it, everything else is just a lie to get there.

[rogerashton]

4. And they feel that there is a surplus ...

that they can use to fund the program they have been selling on the basis of the claim that there is a deficit, right?

They need to make up their minds. Is there a social security surplus, or a deficit?

[AJH032]

11. there is a social security "surplus"

there is a surplus of treasury bonds in the social security trust fund, but there is a general fund deficit that Bush's budgets made. I guess they'd be looking to borrow from that, something that really has nothing to give out, since it's in a deficit.

[rogerashton]

18. The "surplus" means that

the trust fund is invested in Federal bonds. Federal bonds are probably safer than other investments, and this is the justification for this policy, but a regular Republican talking point in recent years has been that "there is nothing in the trust fund" because "it has already been spent." All bullstuff, of course, and needs to be exposed as such.

But the "surplus" is not a "surplus." It is an investment toward reducing the deficit of the trust fund relative to its long-term obligations. Thanks to the leadership of the late Senator Moynihan, (a bill Reagan signed) we have reduced that deficit to a small fraction of what it is -- but some remains, and that is the (very modest!) element of truth in the Republican chicken-littling about a social security crisis.

[LSK]

5. starving the beast n/t

[Straight Shooter]

6. "The strategy is controversial ..."

Have the Repubs ever had a strategy that wasn't controversial?

"(The terrorists) never stop trying to destroy America, and neither do we." (paraphrased quote of george w. bush)

[EFerrari]

7. WTF?!

"funding personal retirement accounts with surplus revenue that now pays for other government programs"

I don't think "surplus" means what they think it means.

:wtf:

[Clark2008]

12. That's what I was wondering...

WHAT surplus?

The Bush Administration has used up every drop of "surplus" Clinton left him - and more.

In other words, they're going to take money from programs that help the poor and middle class and fund their misguided Social Security "deform."

[EFerrari]

13. That's right. They've got the drill down, the b@stards.

www.missionnotaccomplished.us

[stillcool]

8. This was a perfect note to end on.....

"No one is going to find a magic bullet," the staffer said. "There's going to be real pain at some point."

Who's pain do you think he's referring to?

[punpirate]

9. This was part of the intention of the deficits...

... from the beginning--use them as an excuse to cut social programs--and now they're trying to find a way to sow the seeds of the destruction of SS and accomplish their other ends.

[Trajan]

10. Why do GOP Representatives and Senators

INSIST on doing things, in the People's house and senate, while under the employ of the People, that the People DO NOT WANT THEM TO DO ?....

Isnt it their job to REPRESENT THE INTRESTS OF THE PEOPLE WHOM THE REPRESENT ? ... NOT their own interests, but those of the districts and states whom voted them into office ? ...

We live in a REPRESENTATIVE REPUBLIC ... that can only work if the representatives actually REPRESENT what the people at home want ...

They do NOT WANT PRIVATE ACCOUNTS .....

[Carolab]

14. KEEP YOUR GODDAMNED HANDS OFF MY RETIREMENT $.

You SONS OF BITCHES.

[Double T]

15. SURPLUS WHERE? Ohhh. I See. The republicans are going......

to create a surplus by adding more to the deficit. Cut more taxes so we can make the deficit even bigger. Brilliant, Absolutely Brilliant!!!!

[napi21]

16. The poster who said "Starve the Beast" was correct!

I can't even remember how long I've been hearing that as a plan to get rid of those damn social programs! Certainly every RW radio host has repeated that ad nauseum. That's how they have planned to do it, and have been working on getting control of all 3 branches of gov't to make it happen.

I'm hoping the people won't let anything drastic happen before we can snatch at least the Senate from them in 2006. I'm hopeful because most of them are much more concerned aobut their own re-election than they are about supporting their fearless leader.

[peacetalksforall]

17. Someone that steals a package of meat goes to jail for how long?

And the criminals in the Republican administration go to see their lobbyist on some resort island. In this case - money management lobbyists.

Our country is being stolen right out from under us along with our vote.