WP: Poorest Face Most Risk on Social Security

[kskiska]

Saturday, February 19, 2005; Page A01

No group of Americans would be affected more by President Bush's Social Security plan than those earning the least. Just ask 46-year-old Brent Allen.

Allen, who recently lost his job at a Massachusetts paper mill, faces a retirement financed exclusively by the money he has been paying into the Social Security system for the better part of 30 years. Like nearly half the U.S. population, he has no pension or savings to speak of. And his brief flirtations with the stock market have largely flopped.

So Allen, who lives on less than $15,000 a year in disability payments from Social Security and income from his live-in girlfriend, is distrustful of Bush's plan to allow workers to divert a portion of their payroll taxes into personal investment accounts.

"I have had stocks, and have had them for six years, and I have lost money continually," Allen said this week. "What's going to happen to people when they retire when the market is down? There no guarantee can make. There is a guarantee now," under the current system.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36311-2005Feb18.html

[Been Fishing]

1. Why would this surprise anyone?

Those who are the top of the income scale don't need SS. Those in the are in the middle level are better off with pensions, savings, and some investments. Those at the lower level are just able to survive and still need help.

Not pretty and not always fair. Live isn't always fair anyway.

[liberalhistorian]

2. Yeah, but Social Security

was devised for EXACTLY this type of thing, to ensure that the poorer workers who may have worked just as hard as higher-income workers, but who had far more disadvantages in terms of not making enough for savings, no employer pensions, etc,, would have some sort of safety net. So, to have Bush's plan basically eviscerate this protection, the VERY THING IT WAS INITIALLY CREATED FOR AND THE VERY PEOPLE IT WAS INITIALLY CREATED TO PROTECT is really infuriating.

But, I'm afraid that that is exactly what he is really trying to do, since the right has been trying to get rid of social security since it's beginning. And those who are attempting to do so are the very ones who don't need it in the first place, often due to "fortuitous circumstances of birth", like Bush.

Just saying, "life isn't fair sometimes", isn't gonna cut it in this case.

[Deja Q]

12. LIFE IS WHAT WE MAKE OF IT.

Now tell me why I should give a damn about those who voted for * in 2004. (right now I'm happily apathetic. For one thing, they're generally not worth my time or concern.)

[Chicago Democrat]

17. Because we are ALL in the same country!

And ALL of our fates are linked. Stupid Bush supporters and not.

[RaleighNCDUer]

24. Life isn't fair?

That's a pretty off-hand way to look at the wealthiest 5% stealing the retirement of the poorest 40%.

I've made a few mistakes, and had some bad luck -- I passed on a chance to invest $5000 in Apple in 1977 -- and now I am counting on my SS and my rather sad little state employee 401K, which lost half its value since 2001. When I retire, the combination might just let me get by on 20 hrs/wk as a walmart greeter.

But that's only if * doesn't gut SS and saddle us with 2 1/2 trillion dollars additional debt as he does so.

'Life isn't fair' is losing your home in a hurricane, or being broadsided by a drunk driver. What * is doing is more on the lines of criminal predation.

[MasonJar]

3. Bush may be gutting social security because he has already

spent it.

[TahitiNut]

4. That headline ranks right up there with "Water Is Wet"

:eyes: They're not Bushwhacking the wealthy, for sure.

[tibbir]

5. I'm a CPA who retired on disability at age 44.

Luckily I had a private disablity policy that pays the mortgage because my Social Security Disability isn't very much. My problem is that my private disability income stops when I turn 65. Since I can't work any more there's no way for me to build a private SS account - or any other investment account for that matter. I was already in trouble before they started screwing around with SS. Now I'm f$%#d.

Welcome to the US of A.

[Sugarbleus]

6. This is a crisis! Are any of you calling/writing/phoning your

Representatives and/OR other's representatives to complain?? YOU HAVE TO DO THIS.

All the voices concerned about this should be flooding the congress with complaints and threats of a non vote.

These maniacs are screwing not only us, they are screwing the kinder, gentler "regular" republicans of their own party with these antics.

They are weilding a machete to ALL domestic programs...this action WILL trickle down and make life harder for a whole lot of people, not just the very weakest among us.

It's time to get serious and kick some virtual ass!!!!!!

[moondust]

7. So how many of the poorest will be involved in fixing it?

Bad joke.

Perhaps public funding of election campaigns would level the playing field such that some of the poorest would actually be represented in the gov't and have a voice in fixing those things that pose a greater risk to them than to anybody else.

And also have a voice in starting or not starting the wars that pose a greater risk to them than to anybody else.

[Karmadillo]

8. Sure, it's easier to eat the poor if they don't have any money, but

if they don't have enough money to buy food, they're not going to taste very good. Quite a dilemma, but no one ever said maintaining a thriving democracy would be easy.

[dandrhesse]

9. Look how bad the "support" is for this program

Granite State Visit to Sell Plan Gets "Ho Hum" Response, Empty Chairs at Event A Bush visit to NH this week to sell his Social Security scheme lead to the headline "Bush strikes out in NH on Social Security" in the Boston Herald. The Herald reported that the visit "brought little more than a collective ho-hum from Granite Staters." Less than half of the event's planned 2,000 person crowd attended, forcing the President's staff to remove empty chairs from the venue.


That is pathetic, any "elected" president should be able to draw a croud of 2,000 at the drop of a hat, at the last minute, speaking on any subject.

In my town of 50K we drew over 6000 for a Kerry rally with less than a weeks notice and it was on a weekday during work hours!

the plot thickens...

[Tesla]

10. I can't believe they didn't get out the paddy wagon

And haul a few in off the streets.

Go to the churches and have them call the flocks in.

[dandrhesse]

11. I thought you meant to haul bush off! Which would be fine by me along

with the rest of his crew taken all of us for a ride!

[Chico Man]

13. Ask Bush what is different about his system and an IRA

He probably doesn't even know what an IRA is.

[leesa]

14. No. Ya think?? Seeing as how these are the people it was designed

for. The main problem with SS is that people don't know what it is for. They think it is an investment.

[kineneb]

15. war on the poor

and yes, it is class warfare. The NeoCons worship the world of the Guilded Age, with a few robber barons on top and the starving masses below and almost no middle class. If anyone wants to see that world, just pick up a copy of "How the Other Half Lives" published originally around 1903 (now avalible from Dover). It was an early effort of photo-journalism.

Being a musician, I always figured I would end my days sleeping in a refigerator box somewhere. Not a long enough employment record and no money to invest. A Zen monestary starts looking really good.

[iamjoy]

16. Graham's Idea Is Intriguing

Linday Graham (R-SC) I mean.
The problem with cutting benefits for people earning over $30,000 a year though is, in some areas that is below poverty level. I mean, in Greevilee, South Carolina it may be comfortably middle class, but in San Mateo, California...

Anyway, if they want to provide assistance to the working poor, why not make it easier for them to invest in IRAs or employer sponosored plans?

His idea sounds okay, but I just don't trust Republicans.

[Vincardog]

18. if they want to provide assistance to the working poor

why not give them an income great enough that they are not poor?
This whole problem would disappear if there were good paying jobs to be had in this here US of A.

[98geoduck]

19. They just need to work 4 jobs, and not just 3. lazy bastards!

(sarcasm)

[struggle4progress]

20. GOP Takes to Heartland With Social Security Plan (LAT)

By Janet Hook, Times Staff Writer


WASHINGTON — Republican leaders in Congress, faced with the political reality that there is little grass-roots momentum behind President Bush's plan to overhaul Social Security, are planning to spread out across the country next week to try to build a constituency for change — and to take a watchful measure of voters' response.

GOP leaders are encouraging rank-and-file members to hold town hall meetings in their home states and districts during next week's congressional recess, arming them with briefing books, PowerPoint presentations and a video of Bush making the case for major changes in Social Security.

But many Republicans will not be joining their leaders in promoting Bush's proposal. Some lawmakers will be trying to have more low-key "listening sessions" with their constituents to test the political waters. Others plan to focus on other issues and address Social Security only if constituents raise it.

"The situation is fluid, but it has the potential to blow up," said Rep. Thomas M. Davis (R-Va.). "I'm going to keep my mouth shut." <snip>

http://www.latimes.com/business/investing/la-na-social19feb19,1,7872647.story?coll=la-headlines-business-invest

[killbotfactory]

21. Of course

They have the least to invest, the least to gain, and the most to lose. Bush wouldn't have it any other way.

[shanti]

22. i know many, many like him

it's very sad...

[ailsagirl]

23. Hopefully, he's realizing he's got little support for his plan

He's playing to half-empty halls, according to one article!!

http://news.bostonherald.com/politics/view.bg?articleid=68999


:evilgrin: