Soc Sec as welfare -selling"hurt Middle class before poor via new index

[papau]

New idea reportedly being discussed by the Administration: progressive indexing by way of means testing. The richer you are, the quicker your benefits would be indexed to inflation. Most middle class and working class Social Security beneficiaries would see at least most of their income indexed to wage growth for the foreseeable future. The 50% benefit cut over 50 years would have this sugar added, so as to sell the shift from wage indexing to price indexing (who will notice in the media that the index change means Social Security would steadily replace less and less of a person's pre-retirement income).

Heck we would be protecting people at the lowest rungs of the income scale - and those damn poor people hating Dems will not agree to help poor by agreeing with the "PLAN". The media must demand the Dems come up with their own plan to hurt Soc Sec - they can not be allowed to say there is really no real imminent problem. (we can always use new tougher guesses as to the future so as to obtain bigger projected shortfalls - is that what they wany?)

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/25/politics/25social.html

January 25, 2005
White House Looking for Ways to Ease Opposition to Social Security Overhaul
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS and RICHARD W. STEVENSON

ASHINGTON, Jan. 24 - The Bush administration, facing opposition from Democrats and unease among Republicans over its plan to overhaul Social Security, is looking at new ideas for cutting future benefits that would hit wealthy retirees harder than those in the middle or bottom ranks of wage-earners, people involved in the discussions say.

But despite signs of reluctance from Capitol Hill, the White House remains confident that it can find a consensus on legislation that President Bush can sign into law, administration officials and advisers to Mr. Bush said.

People who have been briefed on White House discussions said the administration was striving to retain as much flexibility as possible both on legislative tactics and policy details. Deliberations are under way within the White House and between the White House and Republican leaders in Congress over how to proceed, they said, but there is no sense of panic or even surprise within the administration.

Over the last few weeks, the White House has seen the debate over Social Security take off, but not always in ways that appear helpful to Mr. Bush's goal of quick action to create personal investment accounts within the retirement system and deal with its long-term financing problems.

Democrats and interest groups like the AARP, the lobbying organization for older Americans, are rallying opposition to Mr. Bush's plans; on Monday, the AARP released a poll showing little public support for personal accounts once the costs and tradeoffs involved in establishing them are made clear. Republicans said the poll was flawed and gave a misleading view of public opinion.<snip>