By Edward Kennedy

In his address to Congress and the nation on Feb. 2, President Bush revealed the “reform” of the social security system to be the centerpiece of the agenda of his second administration. Couched in apologetic qualifiers reminding the nation’s senior citizens that the benefit program would remain unchanged for those already over the age of 55, President Bush outlined his plan for what would essentially constitute the gradual privatization of the social security system for generations of Americans unfortunate enough to be considered neither the greatest nor the grayest.

For those of us whose AARP membership is still a ways off, President Bush suggests legislation that would amend the current system and allow us to set aside a portion of our payroll tax currently used for the payment of social security benefits to today’s retirees into personal retirement accounts. Investments of individual social security funds, under the Bush plan, would be guided towards “a conservative mix of bonds and stock funds” to mitigate the vicissitudes inherent in the stock market. Ultimately, the president’s plan would allow for the privatization of up to four percentage points of the individual’s payroll taxes into a new system modeled on the “Thrift Savings Plan” that is currently in place for federal employees and which allows workers to deposit a portion of their paychecks into “any of five different broadly based investment funds”.

When examined in the context of an address that featured a call for the elimination of one hundred and fifty government programs, “needless regulation” and “Junk class action law suits,” the theme of the address becomes readily apparent: the last election not only gave President Bush a mandate to govern, but the temerity to attack the “third rail of American politics” and turn the retirement system many Americans view as their birthright into venture capital. The president’s claim that his revisions of social security will allow for the development of the United States into an “ownership society” are both disingenuous and chimerical. What the president would accomplish in the privatization of social security is the influx of public monies into private coffers, a bonanza for money management firms and the destruction of the last vestiges of a new deal program that was put in place for the expressed purpose of preventing the stock market from dictating our fates. Even for a C student, it must be apparent exactly how fuzzy the math becomes where monies intended for today’s retirees are siphoned off into private accounts. It is clear that this administration intends to usher in the bankruptcy of the social security system far sooner than the 2018 date where social security is first expected to see a shortfall. At such a time the system will require massive borrowing to stay afloat and if history is any indication, public pressure to do so will compel the government to take on still greater debt. The president’s plan would privatize the rewards of the system, but the risks are still very much public.

The Republican leadership that would portray “letting it ride” on the stock market a riskless venture are the very same political forces that have constantly legislated the deregulation of the market. S1317, elusively named “A Bill to repeal the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935” and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 precipitated the farce that was rolling blackouts in California, the Enron debacle and the current state of the Long Island Power Authority. All things considered, the state of our union is a bit troubling unless of course you side with Archie Bunker and truly believe that we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again.