Republican Social Security Plan May Collide With Budget Deficit (Bloombrg)

[swag]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=a1zy6ESRd0w4&refer=us

. . . excerpt

Plans being championed by Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina and by House Republicans including Representatives Sam Johnson of Texas would fund the individual accounts by tapping the excess payroll taxes currently paid by workers, which the Social Security Administration estimates will be $86.7 billion next year.

That surplus is now spent on other government programs; diverting it to private accounts would add to the overall federal budget deficit, said Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition in Washington, a group that advocates a balanced budget. And after peaking in 2008, the surplus begins to dwindle.

``Then what happens?'' asked Bixby, who supports adding private accounts to Social Security separate from payroll taxes. ``It's kind of like watching a mission to Mars without any plan to land when you get there.''

President George W. Bush has been trying since January to build support for his personal-accounts proposal and to generate congressional interest in addressing the future funding shortfall in Social Security, which the system's trustees forecast will run through its surplus by 2041. While House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas and other Republicans are lining up to support the idea of using the excess payroll taxes for private accounts, Democrats are giving no signs of interest, indicating the logjam on Social Security in Congress remains in place.

. . . more

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=a1zy6ESRd0w4&refer=us

[jmcon007]

1. fiscal house needs to be in order first.....

This is obviously a thinly-veiled Republican trap for Democrats. They want us to say 'no' so they can say, "See, the Democrats want to SPEND your money and we want to SAVE it for you!"

The Democrats response should just be honest. The public would understand that the more prudent thing to do at the moment is to get our financial house in order. Bush's policies have caused a very dangerous situation for the country and removing $87 billion dollars more from our ability to pay for Bush's drunken spending would only put the country in more peril. If China calls in their notes of almost $200 billion dollars, we won't have Social Security to worry about anyway.

[Gunit_Sangh]

2. wtf -- $86.7 billion?

Last year it was $150 billion surplus and I thought I had read it was going to be $160 this year increasing to $230 billion by 2009. At this point the surplus starts to decline and in 2017 is when the SSA has to start cashing in those *worthless* IOU's.

[swag]

3. So many miracles happening at once.

[tanyev]

4. More accurate title:

Republican Social Security Plan May Collide With Republican Budget Deficit

[UpInArms]

5. pictures worth billions

[Supersedeas]

6. Exactly