Social Security Redux

Bush State of the Union -

"Personal retirement accounts should be familiar to federal employees because you already have something similar called the Thrift Savings Plan, which lets workers deposit a portion of their paychecks into any of five different broadly based investment funds. It's time to extend the same security, and choice, and ownership to young Americans."

All hail the new Ownership Society:

Security - Insurance (which Social Security IS), is secure. Investment (which Social Security IS NOT), is not.

Choice - SOTU:

"...we will set careful guidelines for personal accounts. We will make sure the money can only go into a conservative mix of bonds and stock funds."

Ownership - From WaPo:

"Under the White House Social Security plan, workers who opt to divert some of their payroll taxes into individual accounts would ultimately get to keep only the investment returns that exceed the rate of return that the money would have accrued in the traditional system."

But Mr. President, the plan would "save the system right?"

Bush -

"I fully recognize that the personal retirement account is not the only thing needed to solve Social Security permanently"

How about the deficit Mr. Vice President, will the plan REALLY cost trillions?

Dick on Fox -

"Well, but, again, remember how much we're going to borrow. We're going to borrow $758 million (sic) over the next 10 years to set up the personal retirement accounts. We think that's a manageable amount.

WALLACE: But trillions more after.

CHENEY: That's right. Trillions more after that. But the personal accounts will themselves provide a significant return for those who hold them, so that they'll get a better deal, if you will, out of money put into that system than they would if they paid it into Social Security."