On Bush's Social Security Initiative

by Bill Creasy

The odd thing about President George W. Bush's initiative to reform Social Security is his concern that in 13 years, social security will be funded partly from general government revenues. For some reason, this seems to bother Bush to extreme. It bothers him enough to want to change the most successful government program in history, to transform it from being solvent for 13 years to being trillions of dollars in debt almost immediately.

Right now, Social Security taxes are being used to fund the general government operations. Social Security is running a surplus. Funds from this surplus are being transferred to pay for the rest of government.

Why doesn't this bother Bush? This is a guy who is creating the biggest budget deficit in history. He also thinks it is critically important to cut income taxes, as well as taxes on dividends and capital gains, which are benefits to wealthy individuals. But when a regressive tax like the Social Security tax is used for funding government, it doesn't bother him.

This is a clear indication of Bush's priorities, and it indicates his motivation for revising Social Security. He isn't concerned for the lower or middle class people who disproportionately pay for and benefit from Social Security now. He is concerned that income taxes on wealthy people may someday be necessary to fund the benefits.

Could it be that he is concerned about stock brokers, who will be able to charge fees by trading the vast sums of money from the Social Security fund? Could he be concerned with the rise of stock prices all this money is used to buy stocks, which will benefit people who already own stocks more than those who will get "personal accounts"? Or maybe he just wants to create a smoke screen so no one discusses the real budget crisis that he has created.

Maybe someone should ask him what he really wants to accomplish, and who it will benefit.