McCain will Destroy SSI:Bush43 Tried 1st

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-08-2008
McCain will Destroy SSI:Bush43 Tried 1st
7
Thu, 09-18-2008 - 1:32pm

http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2008/03/bushs-market-li.html

March 17, 2008

"Bush's Market-Liberal Scam"

This is from the Ludwig von Mises Institute. They are pleased Bush wasn't able to get his Social Security plan implemented because it would have undermined free market capitalism:

Bush's Market-Liberal Scam, by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.: President Bush began his second term with a big push for "Social Security privatization." ... Let's say Bush had actually achieved his goal of creating private accounts..., and a sizable swath of the American public had invested in safe mutual funds spread across many sectors.

What would have been the result? Look at the state of the financial markets. The Bush administration would have holy Hell to pay. The public would have turned against the "market liberals" who gave us this scam. Capitalism would have been denounced as having generated yet another shock-therapy failure. Investment standards would have been ever more regulated. The companies that held most of the "private" funds would be declared too big to fail. The subprime bailout would have become a full-bore stock market bailout. This would have been declared the ultimate failure of free markets.

I think we can be pleased that Bush was unable to muster public enthusiasm for the program. ... It's hard to be grateful for anything during the Bush presidency, but the failure of a phony privatization that would have discredited free markets is one.

Of course, their point is that the government shouldn't be in the business of providing social insurance at all ("abolish it completely and instantly"), but once you accept that won't work, and it won't for a variety of reasons including significant market failures, these are some of the reasons why Social Security privatization schemes should be avoided.

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-06-2001
Thu, 09-18-2008 - 2:25pm

Mc Cain isn't Bush.


 

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-20-2008
Thu, 09-18-2008 - 2:36pm
No he's worse - LOL - he hates Social Security although he draws it.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2007
Thu, 09-18-2008 - 3:35pm

True...He thinks the funding of Social Security is a disgrace.

Sopal

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iVillage Member
Registered: 01-06-2001
Thu, 09-18-2008 - 3:36pm
John McCain on Social Security
  • Workers should be allowed to invest a portion of their payroll tax in private accounts which they manage themselves.

  • What specific changes would you make to the Social Security program?

    No government program is the object of more political posturing and spin than Social Security. Americans have the right to know the truth, no matter how bad it is. The current Social Security system is unsustainable. A half century ago, sixteen American workers supported every retiree. Today, it's just three. Soon, it will be only two. If we don't make some tough choices, Social Security either won't be there for our children and grandchildren or we will have had to raise taxes so dramatically to support them that we will have crushed the prosperity of average Americans. I believe that we may meet our obligations to the retirees of today and the future without raising taxes, and I support supplementing the current Social Security system with personal accounts - but not as a substitute for addressing benefit promises that cannot be kept. People in both parties agree that we must make the hard decisions to restore solvency to these programs. As President, I'll submit a plan to save Social Security, and I'll ask Congress to do the same. I'll work on a bipartisan basis to make the hard choices; to protect the retirement security of the American worker, and the growth of the American economy. And if Congress is afraid to make those choices, then they can just let me do it. I'll take the heat. I'll ask Congress to let me submit a comprehensive proposal. I'll prepare it carefully, fairly and honestly. And they can vote yes or no: no amendments; no filibuster; no tricks: no band-aid solutions; no more kicking the can down the road as the problem becomes harder and more expensive to solve; no more hoping that a future generation of leaders will have the courage we lack. If some of their constituents complain, and they will, they can put the blame on me.


    Why would he like it , it is broken just like he said.

     

    iVillage Member
    Registered: 08-20-2008
    Thu, 09-18-2008 - 3:41pm

    LOL,


    Then by all means go ahead and invest with the likes of what have gone out of business this week.

    iVillage Member
    Registered: 08-25-2008
    Thu, 09-18-2008 - 4:00pm

    LOL... I love the spin...


    He thinks the funding of Social Security is a disgrace


    ...

    iVillage Member
    Registered: 09-08-2008
    Thu, 09-18-2008 - 11:37pm

    ((The remarks drew fire from Democrats, who accused McCain of failing to understand a system that since its creation in the 1930s has relied on payroll taxes from current workers to fund benefits for current retirees. Some supporters of this system say that allowing younger workers to divert money into private accounts would reduce the tax money needed to provide benefits for older workers once they retired.)))

    What in the world does McCain have against seniors? Awful plans for their money. Yet, we are supposed to believe that McCain has the fore site to prevent more wall street crises like the one this week? Not buyin' that crap.