Republicans Closing In On Qualitative Degradation Of Social Security

They're still after him.

And he still welcomes their hatred.

"I Welcome Their Hatred"

FDR
Full Text and Audio File

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/08/franklin-delano-roosevelt-i-welcome.html

Alan: I oppose promiscuous privatization of Social Security. 

However, I do advocate that a significant percentage of Social Security moneys be invested in Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) which reflect "overall market value." 

Since the New York Stock Exchange was founded, the trend-line of its collective profitability has been steeply upward. 

Not only should we trust in this upward trajectory -- without which The Whole System comes undone anyway -- the investment of some Social Security money in ETFs would increase the value of stocks while expanding the pool of investment money for American enterprise.

Furthermore, Social Security's investment in ETFs prevents the Federal Government from "borrowing" Social Security funds for other budgetary purposes.

This long-standing practice whereby the Feds tap Social Security moneys like a private piggy bank does nothing to benefit the SS System while leaving it open to the false allegation of being an indebted "tax liability."

That liberals and progressives do not see the evident benefit of ETF investment is textbook illustration of "ideological momentum" and the reflexive inability to see how The Left can make common cause with The Right. 

The Social Security Trust Fund is solvent through 2035 and then only mild tweaks will keep it solvent in perpetuity.

Senate Committee: Small Tweaks Will Guarantee Social Security's Future Finances

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/07/senate-committee-small-tweaks-will.html

"Are Republicans Insane?" Best Pax Posts

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/12/are-republicans-insane-best-pax-posts.html

Republicans think their 80-year quest to end Social Security will finally succeed

Joan McCarter

TPM has a timely reminder that the destruction of Social Security has been probably the longest-standing policy goal of the Republican party, now in its eighth decade. From the time of its inception by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1933, Republicans have actively fought for it's demise in the first few decades through repeal, and in the last several by trying to chip away at it so that it would eventually weaken enough to be easy to kill outright.

The 114th Congress has begun with a Republican party that is emboldened and as determined to cripple Social Security as they have been since President George W. Bush's disastrous 2005 effort to privatize it. Georgia Republican Rep. Tom Price has taken over the House Budget Committee from Rep. Paul Ryan, and is has even bigger ambitions to destroy the program than his predecessor, now even talking about privatization, something Ryan would only extend to Medicare. Price told the Heritage Action for America “Conservative Policy Summit” on Monday that he wants to "begin to normalize the discussion and debate about Social Security." By "normalize, he means cut it,

"[W]hether it's means testing, whether it's increasing the age of eligibility […] whether it's providing much greater choices for individuals to voluntarily select the kind of manner in which they believe they ought to be able to invest their working dollars as they go through their lifetime."

Price and his fellow Republicans in leadership have set the stage to begin this effort, and as usual did it with some hostage taking. This time the hostages are about 11 million people who receive Social Security disability benefits. That program is expected to hit a shortfall next year, and benefits will be automatically cut unless the program gets an influx of cash. This has happened in the past, in both the retirement and the disability programs. What has always happened in the past—with no big controversy—is that Congress has authorized the transfer of funds from one of the programs to the other. But last week the House passed a new rule that says Congress can't do that any more unless they also take some action to "fix" (read slash) the Social Security system.

Republicans are pretending that this move was a way to keep the undeserving disabled people from stealing older Americans benefits. They're trying to pit one group against another, in hopes that they'll scare enough seniors to get the support to push it through. But what they're really doing is setting up the retirement system for the kinds of "reforms"—including privatization—Price laid out.