Sam Says

Author: Sam Wilson

The 109th Congress has now started session and is ready to legislate. Eager to give them something to legislate, President George W. Bush is starting his campaign to sell Social Security privatization. Oh, exciting time!

The president would have us believe that Social Security is headed for a "crisis," because when the Boomers retire Social Security will start paying out more than it takes in. I hate to sound cynical, but not finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq or legitimate Iraqi ties to al Qaeda really cuts down his credibility for me. So I was at first a little skeptical of this crisis.

Then I remembered that he did not emphasize this too much during the campaign. Social Security received a scant four sentences in his nomination speech over the summer and there was no mention a crisis or an iceberg. In that speech and the rest of his campaign, he spoke much more about health care, tax reform and banning gay marriage. So, if Social Security is really in crisis, why didn't we hear about it last summer and fall? Crises generally get a good deal of campaign coverage, but strangely I recall seeing a lot more about gay marriage and Swift Boat Vets than a Social Security Crisis. And thus, my skepticism grew.

When looking at the current Social Security situation it is apparent that "crisis" may be a bit of hyperbole. The Social Security trust fund has over $1.5 trillion in it, and will continue to take in more money than it spends until 2018. The Social Security Trustees say that it will be able to pay full benefits until 2042. To put this in perspective, there was a Social Security crisis in 1983. Then the trust fund was days from insolvency, not 37 years.

MIT economics professor Peter Diamond told the New York Times, "There is a problem, but there is no basis for calling it a crisis... [The crisis of 1983] was readily fixed without radical reforms, and it's obvious that be done again."

So why this urge to privatize social security? It could be that this is really about political ideology, which is being sold as pragmatism. Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal is still one of the defining aspects of modern politics. Since its inception, Democrats have generally accepted government programs as necessary and beneficial for the country. Republicans are generally more opposed to them, since they require higher taxes and often interfere with the markets.

Social Security is one of the original remaining New Deal programs. A leaked White House memo, written by Karl Rove-deputy Peter Wehner stated, "For the first time in sixty years, the Social Security battle is one we can win - and in doing so, we can transform the political and philosophical landscape of the country." This suggests that the administration is actually working towards the super conservative ideal of dismantling the New Deal. This is the first time in sixty years that we have had a Republican President not up for reelection and a Republican Congress that may go along with it.