The Great Social Security Craziness

On this issue, I admit that I may not completely tow the line the ultra-right conservatives since I don't seek to completely abolish the Social Security system. However, I would certainly be one to reform in it along the lines of allowing workers to invest a portion of their funds. People will remember that George W. Bush spent a good part of 2005 campaigning for it and wasn't quite able to get it done, but still brought it to a significant level of attention. His opponents (mostly the Democrats) said that it would only drain money from the Social Security "Trust Fund". This was despite the fact that Bill Clinton himself recommended doing the same thing during his presidency....go figure!

So, what is this "trust fund"? Well, it's made up of those Social Security taxes taken out of your paycheck. They then take those funds and "invest" them. How do they "invest" them? They do it by turning around and buying US GOVERNMENT debt. So, on paper we're lending money to ourselves, but all we're doing is filling up the SS with IOU's. Go figure again!!! At least there's one tiny piece of good news in this. We actually are more than 52% in national debt to ourselves than we are to foreign governments. So, at least we're keeping the debt here at home. But it's not going to be pretty when the Baby Boomers start retiring and "collecting" on those loans.

Good luck....