Bush aims to foil FDR legacy

[emad]

Kansas City Star

By PAUL KRUGMAN

Columnist


President Bush isn't trying to reform Social Security. He isn't even trying to “partially privatize” it. His plan is, in essence, to dismantle the program, replacing it with a system that may be social but won't provide security. And the goal, as with his tax cuts, is to undermine the legacy of Franklin Roosevelt.

Why do I say that the Bush plan would dismantle Social Security? Because for Americans who enter the work force after the plan goes into effect and who choose to open private accounts, guaranteed benefits — income you receive after retirement even if everything else goes wrong — would be nearly eliminated.

Here's how it would work. First, workers with private accounts would be subject to a “clawback”: In effect, they would have to mortgage their future benefits to put money into their accounts.

Second, since private accounts would do nothing to improve Social Security's finances — something the administration has finally admitted — there would be large benefit cuts in addition to the clawback.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/business/10870740.htm?1c

[jswordy]

1. WELL.....DUH!

AND DOUBLE-DUH!

THAT was a hard one to figure out, hunh?

[bryant69]

2. Another home run from Paul Krugman

This needs to be hammered home again and again and again.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[LinuxInsurgent]

3. i love this guy...

This guy didn't get Cs in Yale...unlike another Chimp I could name.

[RaleighNCDUer]

4. * can't touch FDR's legacy.

Even if he should manage to overturn everything FDR did, it would only take a generation, or less, for America to recognize how thoroughly * had f*cked them, and they would then work to fix the damage. Where would they turn? To the programs that worked -- FDR's programs.

Chiseling his name off the monuments won't do it -- he is embedded in the consciousness of the world. And his confidence and optimism are a part of the American soul.

[David__77]

5. Being an economics graduate student...

...and having to tolerate the current dogma of "classically"-premised economics, Krugman is a rare parting of the clouds.