This is Floyd Wynne with THE VIEW FROM HERE    3/01/05

What is all this hype on changes in Social Security?

            President George Bush proposed the idea of taking a small portion of the social security withholdings from your paycheck and putting it into some investment fund that would be your own personal property.

            While proposing the plan, he also indicated that it was just one idea for changing social security, pointing out that he was willing to consider other ideas as well.   However, not only the Democrats, but also groups such as the AARP have roundly criticized him for even advancing the idea.

            Well…..what changes could be made.

            They could increase the percentage of social security funds that both you and your employer contribute.    They could increase the age limit at which you could collect social security….say from sixty five to seventy over a gradual amount of time.  They could increase the amount of payroll subject to social security which now is at $90,000.

            They could also deny social security to anyone who makes over a certain amount of money….say over $100,000.

            What other changes could they make?

            Well, this may sound a bit off key, but what is wrong with letting a person take that portion from their social security credits, invest it as the government suggests, and then when they reach the retirement age, keep both their accumulated social security and the extra funds from their investment as well..  After all those opposing any action claim that it would provide less in social security funding for the individual if that person does agree to switch some funds to investments         After all taking a small amount into private investment would be very little risk since that individual would more than make up what money he might have lost in lower social security monies.

            First off, almost everyone agrees that there must be some changes in social security else the program will go broke with all the baby boomers moving into the retirement age.  Even the Democrats seem to agree on that, but thus far there only response has been to flatly reject the President’s idea without coming up with any suggestion of their own.

            One might wonder why the President proposed the change that he did with the repercussions that have occurred.  Well, the social security debate has certainly taken the pundits off the situation in Iraq.   That plus the recent successful elections over there have tended to mute most criticisms of the conflict .

            One spokesman today noted that it may take an expenditure of twenty trillion dollars to correct social security.  He indicated that twenty trillion amounts to about 100,000 dollars for every family in America.  

            He did note that social security is more than just retirement funding, it also provides for dependent children if a worker dies and also that it provides funds for those who become totally disabled while in the work force.   These features of the social security program are oftentimes lost in the discussions on the program.

            As I’ve said before, it will be interesting to see just what Congress does with the social security problem.  

            This is Floyd Wynne and that’s THE VIEW FROM HERE.