The Same Old Saw On Social Security

The Same Old Saw On Social Security:

By Charles Krauthammer

Friday, May 6, 2005; Page A23

Having lured the president out onto a far limb on Social Security, the Democrats have begun sawing. Democratic leaders immediately rejected the president's plan and stood up for all that is good and true and saintedly Rooseveltian -- without, of course, offering any alternative.

To be sure, the president started all this on his own, first proposing personal accounts. Democrats objected that this did nothing about the really important issue, namely solvency. So Bush offered five solvency alternatives in his State of the Union address (four first proposed by Democrats) and welcomed any other ideas. The Democrats answered: 'You go first.' On April 28 the president did go first, proposing a remarkably progressive reduction in the rate of growth of benefits.


The Democratic leadership, supported by misleading headlines around the country, denounced these 'cuts' as the work of a party that never did believe in Social Security and now wants to kill it.

Yes, these are cuts, but only in the growth of promised benefits in the future -- based on formulas written in the pre-baby boomer retirement era that so inflate benefits that they are entirely unsustainable. They cannot possibly be paid by the taxes of the fewer workers in the future who will be supporting the many retirees."

Read the full article.

Another Approach: The Democratic Freedom Caucus

This is a great article on the Democratic Freedom Caucus.

Another Approach: The Democratic Freedom Caucus

It’s said that there’s more than one way to skin a cat, and Paul Gagnon, member of the Democratic Freedom Caucus (DFC) National Committee, would agree. He and his colleagues on the DFC have been working from within to inject libertarian ideas into the Democratic Party. The DFC “is a progressive, pro-freedom caucus, which promotes the values which the Democratic Party was founded upon: individual liberty, constitutional democracy, and social responsibility.”

Read the full article.
Join the DFC Yahoo Groop.

Social Security's Progressive Paradox

Social Security's Progressive Paradox
Retirement "insurance" as a Rube Goldberg machine

Julian Sanchez

from Reason:

"Casual observers of contemporary politics could be forgiven for wondering: Where are the goatees? First we had a "conservative" Congress and president pushing through expansions in Medicare and federal control of education that would make Lyndon Johnson blush. Now we have liberal pundits horrified at the notion that President Bush, by proposing progressive indexing of Social Security benefits, would contemplate transforming a universal social insurance program into a de facto welfare program. Progressives decrying welfare? Have we slipped into some strange mirror universe? How long before Al Franken is conjuring man-on-dog scare scenarios to oppose gay marriage?"