While everyone else has their head turned at the latest shiny thing, please note what is taking place with regard to the budget talks.
House Republicans on Friday introduced legislation that would allow workers to partially opt out of Social Security immediately, and fully opt out after 15 years.
Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), who chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee, and several other Republicans introduced the Savings Account for Every American (SAFE) Act. Under the bill, workers would immediately have 6.2 percent of their wages sent to a "SAFE" account each year.
That would take the place of the 6.2 percent the workers now contributed to Social Security.
Another 6.2% is sent to Social Security by employers. Under the Sessions bill, employers would continue to make this matching contribution to Social Security, but after 15 years, employers could also send that amount to the employee's SAFE account.
Sessions said this transition to a private retirement savings option is needed because Social Security last year began paying out more money than it took in.
Repeat after me: Republicans want to privatize everything, starting with Medicare and Social Security. This proposal is no different than what Bush proposed.
Of course, what this would really do is remove money from the Social Security system right now, thus endangering the system for all older workers who will still be in the system 15 years from now. I'm beginning to wonder if my demographic group is going to be the guinea pig in a Soylent Green experiment. (Sure, they'll eventually figure out that his whole thing is unworkable, but it will be too late for the last half of the baby boom.)
Will someone please notify the Democratic messaging machine? Digby is exactly right: They want to strip Social Security of cash flow at the time where they need it the most. By the way, the Social Security trust fund has a surplus intended to deal with the expected actuarial projections of negative cash flow, so that's just another bogus excuse for Republicans to further dismantle the social safety net.
