The trustees report on the financial state of Social Security was
released yesterday but you don't need to read it to understand the most
important part of the ongoing debate: President Bush's privatization
plan makes Social Security's financial problems worse
(http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstrac...0894DD4044 82)
.. And despite what you may have read in your local newspaper this
morning ( here
(http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansas...s/11213092.htm) ,
here (http://www.freep.com/money/business/...e_20050324.htm) ,
here
(http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business...ness-headlines)
and here
(http://news.bostonherald.com/politic...rticleid=74759) , for
example), Social Security is not going broke in 2041. Rather, according
to the most recent Social Security trustees report, the program will be
able to pay full benefits to all beneficiaries until that date without
any reforms. (Five years ago, the trustees predicted that the program
would be able to pay out full benefits until 2037, so -- despite the
scare tactic by those eager to privatize the program -- its financial
condition has actually been improving
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...05Mar23_2.html) .)



BUSH HAS NO PLAN FOR THE BIGGER PROBLEM: There are five trustees, three
from the Bush administration and two who are independent. The two
independent trustees -- Republican Thomas R. Saving and Democrat John L.
Palmer -- weren't invited to the press conference
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2005Mar23.html)
announcing the release of the new report. Apparently, they weren't on
message. Saving and Palmer noted that, over their five year tenure, the
finances of Social Security have improved. According to Saving and
Palmer, the more pressing issue is how to affordably meet our obligation
to provide health care to the poor and the elderly in the coming
decades. American Progress released its plan to do so yesterday, in the
context of a fully-financed universal health care plan
(http://www.americanprogress.org/site...J8OVF&b=477169) .
President Bush has no plan.



PRIVATIZATION MAKES THINGS WORSE: The Bush administration has already
tried to use privatization to control the costs of an entitlement
program. It's been a disaster. In 2003 the president and his right-wing
allies jammed through Congress the Medicare Modernization Act -- which
provided massive subsidies and overpayments to HMOs and the
pharmaceutical industry in an effort to rely more on the private sector
and "control costs." Using the administration's favorite metric, the
administration's 2003 changes alone now " ha[ve] an unfunded liability
of $18.2 trillion projected out infinitely
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2005Mar23.html) ."
Since the administration's 2003 changes, the exhaustion date for the
Medicare trust fund has worsened by six years
(http://www.cms.hhs.gov/publications/...ort/tr2003.pdf) .