by More stuff is brewing on personal accounts for Social Security. It seems that there are a few GOP senators that want to pass a bill protecting the Social Security surplus by putting it into individual accounts using T-Bills (Treasury Bills). The benefits would be that T-Bills are secure, and the GOP could tout that personal accounts this way would give you something that you could pass on to your family as well as fulfill the original marketing on social security. Some good quotes:
They want to seize back the moral and political offensive on the issue of personal accounts. By proposing the creation of personal “lockboxes” to ensure that the government can’t raid Social Security taxes for other programs, they would force opponents to cast a vote against the idea that individuals should have ownership and control over some of their own retirement funds.
Politically, their proposal does disarm some of the most oft-used arguments against reform. It would create no new debt for the government because, unlike President Bush’s proposal, the personal accounts would use only the surplus payroll taxes now flowing into the Treasury. … Security starts running a deficit as baby boomers begin to retire. Preventing that money from being “raided” by a spendthrift Congress and White House could be enormously popular with a cynical public.
Hmmm…haven’t heard about this yet. Thanks for the link MIn, I’ll check it out.