I am sure we would get some type of reform if the Congress stopped fighting george Bush and speant some time working on a better solution.
IMO one of the Problems today is that demovcrats dont want a solution while George Bush is in the Presidency, and the republicans havent the courage to stop playing around and push their agenda. Stop this super-majority BS.
You can bet your butt if the Democrats regain the Congress the Super majority is a dead issue.
This article omits some relevant information:
In June, 2004, President Bush's Social Security Administration negotiated a deal with Mexico named "Totalization", to allow Mexicans who work for a period of time (legally or illegally) in the United States to collect money from the U.S. Social Security system when they retire in Mexico.
Thanks to the efforts of members of The Conservative Caucus, this deal has not gone into effect yet. The President must send it to Congress, which has 60 legislative days for either house to reject it by majority vote to kill it. If Congress does nothing for those 60 days, it will automatically go into effect. Because the Mexican raid deal is not a treaty, the Senate does not have to ratify it by a 2/3 majority. It was negotiated by authority of a law passed by Congress in 1977 giving the government the ability to negotiate such agreements, subject to Congressional review.
The Conservative Caucus has led the fight to block this irresponsible deal which would drain our Social Security budget. Due to our efforts, President Bush has not sent the agreement to Congress for fear it would be rejected. We have alerted by special mailings over a half million Americans, made tens of thousands of legislative alert phone calls, and delivered to date more than 136,000 signed petitions to Congress and the President opposing the deal with Mexico. With your help, we can keep President from ever sending the deal to Congress, we can get Congress to pass H.R. 858 to permanently ban it, and then our Social Security system will be forever safe from being raided by Mexicans.
http://www.conservativeusa.org/mexico-socsec.htm
I've always figured the long term govt plan was to get everyone to save up a lot of 401k money in accounts. Then put a new "gotcha" surtax on withdrawals by "the rich" as baby boomers start to retire.
It's because the government is taking my money, saying they are investing it, so they can give it back to me IF I make it to the age of retirement (whatever age that may be by that time).
If I had that money I could invest it myself, win - lose - or draw, but if the government takes that money, I expect back at least what they took, even if it's without the interest.
If I don't get it back there will be holy hell to pay and other people think just like me.
I will always admire the President for his failed push for Social Security reform. It was a foray into visionary politics for the sake of the next generation. It was also the only time I have seen Bush suggest something really unpopular, back it up, and follow it through to the bitter end.
It didn't work, but when the bottom falls out of Social Security, no one can say we weren't warned.
The main reform will be some type of indexing (taxing) SS depending on how good your other retirement is. Sort of like was done with Medicare.
1. Make it voluntary.
2. Let the recipient designate where the funds are invested.
3. Link benefits to monies paid in. If there's an insurance portion, separate it from the retirement portion.
Next time around, the strategy should be all-out attack. Put up our plan to shift to investment accounts and hammer the dems for wanting a 50% tax increase or a 30% benefit cut. The accusation has to be made, and forcefully. It is, first and foremost, true. It is also the only way to smoke the 'rats out of their holes.