If you have a blog and can’t think of a topic to dig into today, try reading through this online Q&A the White House just held with Chuck Blahous, President Bush’s Social Security phase-out <$NoAd$>maven.
Listen to this exchange with “Stuart” from New Jersey (italics added) …
Stuart, from New Jersey writes:
How can we make the transition to invester owned social security without incurring 2 trillion in dept to fund current citizans recieving assistance?Chuck Blahous
As long as we have a Social Security system, there will be costs no matter what we do. The Social Security Trustees have told us the cost of maintaining the current system without change. It is approximately $10.4 trillion, in present value. That is the extra revenue that the system would need to have on hand today, above and beyond all payroll taxes, to meet the gap between taxes and promised benefits.A number of comprehensive proposals have been put forward, some by Members of Congress, others by the Presidentâs bipartisan Commission to Strengthen Social Security. President Bush has not selected a specific reform proposal. Several of these proposals would fix the system permanently while considerably reducing the cost of sustaining the system under current law.
The current system would begin its âtransitionâ from the black to the red in 2018. From that date onward, under current law, the current system would face a deficit that is growing worse with each following year. The President has proposed that we head off this event by beginning to invest now in the future of Social Security. We can do this for far less than the $10 trillion cost of sustaining the current system.
Wow, Social Security Administration needs ten trillion dollars on hand today and it’s got nuthin’. That really is a crisis!
Infinity? Today? But, hey, who’s counting?
Does Blahous not think anybody’s going to read this stuff?
