“Although opponents to privatization conjure up the spectacle of private accounts being subject to the vagaries of the stock market, this is surely a red herring thrown into the debate since any privatization reform could require that all funds placed into private accounts be invested in U.S. securities backed by the good faith and credit of the U.S. government. The only difference between privatization and what we have now is that under privatization retiree benefits would be guaranteed and not subject to the ravages of confiscation or reduction by a future Congress, whereas under the present system, government is free to revoke or reduce benefits at its whim.”
[Apparently, they want all the risk to remain on the taxpayers’ balance sheet. They just want the fees, thank you very much!]
“Privatization of Social Security, a longtime GOP priority, was the first focus of former President Bush and the Republican cogressional majorities the last time they won an election cycle—in 2004. And, with they scheme to lock in Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy, the only way Republicans will avoid creating the largest deficits in American history is by ending the nation’s commitment to its seniors and to its most vulnerable citizens—by gutting Social Security and functional Medicare and Medicaid programs.
“They clearly support privatizing Social Security. They clearly support turning Medicare into a voucher program,” says Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz. noting that two key players in the House Republican Caucus—Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan and Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor—have are busy championing such proposals. “Paul Ryan and Eric Cantor wrote a book about it and are in the middle of a book tour promoting that.”
“Ryan attended Joseph A. Craig High School in Janesville and was sixteen years old when he found his father in bed, dead of a heart attack at age 55. Ryan’s grandfather had also died of a heart attack at age 57, as had his great-grandfather also similarly died of a heart attack at age 59.[10] Ryan began collecting his Social Security survivor’s benefits until age eighteen, which he saved for college tuition and expenses.[11]”
