Pass me that debt please!

Today, in the news was a quote from GWB. For the most part, I try to ignore quotes from GWB, but today’s caught my ear.

“You elected me to Washington to solve problems, not pass them on.”

Excuse me? Not pass on problems? I think I have been watching the wrong TV channels!

He was, of course, talking about “his” solution to Social Security. As we all know, the government has, for many years raped (read: borrowed without repaying) the Social Security funds to pay for other things, so there may problems paying out what is now promised. And this is not something I would blame on any one president, seems every administration steals from these funds. But it does mean that the piece of paper the SSA sends you with your so called “retirement” benefits, which the government has eagerly taken from you all these many years and wisely “invested” for your retirement, may not be there when you really need them, or at a significantly reduced rate. Given that inflation will eat up this benefit anyway, further reducing it to keep SSA solvent is not the answer.

The GAO report on Social Security’s future shows that the system will be solvent until 2042, though Social Security tax income alone will be insufficient to pay benefits by 2018. After 2018, Social Security surpluses from prior years will be needed to pay benefits (assuming they still exist), until the money runs out in 2042. If, we do as GWB suggests, and let the new workers stop paying in now, we will not even make the 2018 date. Of course, we could just ‘borrow’ more money like this administration keeps doing! What debt ceiling? OH, you mean the limit we just raised again?

Basically, those of you who have worked hard as have I, and paid your Social Security Tax every year for over 30 years with a promise of benefits when you retire will probably see very little, or perhaps nothing. Forget that it WAS your money, and forget that the government has promised you that it will be there for you when you retire, simply make your own plans now and do not count on it.

However, GWB has a great “new” idea: Let today’s young working people opt out of SSI, and take pre-tax money and invest it themselves into “certain” investments (read: stocks and bonds) instead of expecting social security to be there. Funny, I thought this idea was called an IRA, 401K, or SEP, and they have been around for many years. How is this new? But lets not forget about all those people back in the 20’and in the more recent 90’s who took similar advise and put their retirement savings into stocks. See how well it worked for them? This is exactly was Social Security was designed to prevent.

But GWB believes this will allow young people to save for themselves, and in some ways it is a good idea! When I was in my late 20’s, I often said I would agree to give up ALL Social Security benefits in the future if the Government would simply stop taxing me for it now (meaning then.) I would take care of myself. In theory, this is a great idea, why rely on the government for my retirement? Too late for anyone in their 50’s, but for younger working American’s, this COULD work. However’¦

The first big problem is that the average household in America today carries $8000 in credit card debt! Add home and car debt, and people skid very close to bankruptcies monthly. In addition, about 43% of American families spend more than they earn each year. And personal bankruptcies have doubled in the past decade (source MSN: http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/SavingandDebt/P70581.asp)

What that says to me is that most people have no clue what so ever on how to save money so far, so why think they will get this right now? If you are in your 20’s or 30’s, are you going to stop buying that cool car, stereo, TV, iPOD, computers, CDs, DVDs, etc to save some money for when you hit 65? I am sure a few will, but history shows that most will not. Without some serious controls and requirements, I basically see this idea as a 40-year disaster waiting to happen, or basically, PASSING ON the problem of future retirement to future generations to correct later.

But lets go back to GWB’s comment about not passing on the problems. How exactly is he doing this? He will pass on the largest debt this country has ever seen to the next generations to repay. Unless something changes in the next 3 years, he will pass on one of the largest unemployment numbers and loss of jobs in American to the next generation. He will pass on the worst decrease in environmental protections in our history. Or should I say he would pass on the most polluted systems. He will also pass on the largest increase in government size seen in a LONG time, and unprecedented for a Republican for sure (signing into place a brand new security organization just today!) He will also pass on the worst division between Democrats and Republicans seen in many years as well. And do not get me started on ‘no child left behind.’ Left behind where, the moon? We pass on one of the worst and poorest education systems the US has ever seen, with the more school closings happening now than ever before, all to the next generations to fix, if they can. And he passes on more enemies of the US to the next generations as well.

How sad that once again this administrations way of ‘solving’ a problem is to create a clever sound byte that simply does not state the truth about the issue. Like: It’s not a war, it’s a conflict. It’s not a budget problems, its an opportunity to save money. No child left behind. We are here to solve problems, not pass them on. Yet another clever saying that solves nothing.

Now, if the smarter people in this country could just start paying attention to what is done vs. what is said, perhaps we CAN fix some of these problems before it is too late.