Economist Thomas Sowell has a couple of pieces on Social (In)Security here and here. How did Social Security get into its present mess in the first place? Because politicians made it the "risky scheme" that they now claim privatization would be. The same political expediency which caused Social Security to be called "insurance," in order […]
National Review's Ramesh Ponnuru follows up on Sen. John Kerry's dubious Social Security scaremongering that I noted earlier this week. The campaign has backed off its claim that Goolsbee's study tells us anything about benefit levels under a Bush-style reform. They have also gotten rid of all the language that claims that today's retirees would […]
I'm watching CNN's "Inside Politics" and they're reporting on Sen. John Kerry's promise to do nothing about Social Security's structural flaws and continue down the merry road to destruction. No, that's not how they're characterizing it, but that's the reality. Kerry is promising to never privatize Social Security. Fine. Kerry also was touting a study […]
You just gotta love Paul Krugman. So book smart, but reality stupid. [A] new Bush campaign ad pushes the theme of an "ownership society," and concludes with President Bush declaring, "I understand if you own something, you have a vital stake in the future of America." Call me naïve, but I thought all Americans have […]
National Review's Ramesh Ponnuru saw the ad AARP is running of a middle-aged guy going around trying to get donations to save Social Security. Like Ramesh, I think it's a good ad. But Ramesh noticed something I didn't. But in the interests of accuracy, shouldn't the guy be mugging children? Ramesh is right.
A lot of Texas teachers worked as janitors today to exploit a loophole and steal from the Social Security system. Today was the last day the loophole existed which allowed teachers to claim increased spousal support benefits if they worked their last day as a Social Security-paying employee. Most teachers in Texas (and in states […]
Roll Call's Morton Kondracke has an excellent article on the third rail of American politics, Social Security.
Neil Cavuto has John "Flipper" Kerry on right now talking about the economy, etc. But Kerry's response to one question was so weaselly it just had me screaming. Cavuto: Senator, would you be for raising the Social Security retirement age? Kerry: No. Cavuto: Would you be for means-testing Social Security? Kerry: No. Cavuto: So, Social […]
I'd love to get a job where I can just recycle old blog posts over and over and over ad infinitum. New York Times columnist Paul Krugman (whose Nobel Prize in economics is never going to come if he's really this stupid) has trotted out another column -- a virtual carbon copy of one nearly […]
If you missed it yesterday, Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan told Congress that Social Security is structurally unsound and they're going to have to do something about it. With the economy now growing strongly, he said, the deficit "will tend to narrow somewhat" in the short term, but that won't be enough to cover the long-term […]