Constant Mutterings About the Future

So this morning I'm on my way in and I get to listen to more crap about the Bush plan for Social Security(My Favorite!) And they had this dopey guy with a bad lisp mentioning the model II plan for the Bush SS changes. Apparently the new idea is to change the cost of living increase that is now set by wage rate to being set by price index. In other words even if the basic minimum wage is raised by a dollar an hour, your SS benefit would likely only increase a small amount because the change in price index will be a much lower percentage of change. So as the poorly spoken man mentioned, the culture of SS would be changed from a pension system to a system to prevent poverty. HELLO! SS is not available to families below the poverty level, so the intention of the plan was never meant to sustain people at what this fellow called a minimum amount of consumption. It's intention was to have a pension plan for people that are hardworking Americans that may go from job to job and may not have the ability to get an ordinary pension or have the wherewithall to invest early enough in life to create a cushion for retirement. This plan essentially means to remove the buying power from those above the retirement age that for reasons of environment, class or education wind up retiring dependent on this "poverty prevention program".

Alright, so I bitch and moan and try to make it clear that this whole thing is just a cluster fuck. I mean look at the post below and how these assholes intend to mask it's approval with petty politics and BS push poll techniques. So I'm just a stupid liberal with no idea what I'm saying because something needs to be done and I obviously don't know what that is...WRONG! I know what we could do, as do many progressive minds on capitol hill. The sad truth is it hurts the rich, changes the standard and makes the plan keep with it's original intent. What needs to be done are two simple things in my opinion. One is to raise the salary cap from the current stop point which I believe is 95,000 a year. I could be off by five thousand either way because I've heard everything from 90 to 100, but essentially in today's society it's more likely for a person to make that level of salary than it was even fifteen years ago, so why is it that this cap hasn't been raised? No reason other than it's a "tax increase" to those making that much right now. To those that excel to that status from below, they won't notice until someone makes a stink about it. Anyhow, I suggest raising it to about 110 to 120 thousand. This would create a huge amount of funds and since most of those folks will still retire with enough investment to live without SS, that money will go to America's workers. So what's the second thing? Well to be honest, I think the next thing we need to do is leave SS alone. Our government is dependent on a large number of SS funding for other services. Granted this money is sort of paid back over time, it isn't really. The government should have more simple revenue options to fund services. I can't believe that an organization that large hasn't come up with ways to raise funds above and beyond the traditional means. For instance, the military. I think all those gun toting 101st keyboarders that put so much support in the war for Iraq should cough up some sacrifice. Put another way, if so many people are in such support of the troops and want a stronger military with better nukes and satelite missile defense systems, then they should be aloud to contribute a portion above their normal taxes to a military fund. Then a percentage of the total defense budget will come partially from this private entity. Think it'll work? Nope, because the pipers drop their tune when it's out of pocket. The good thing with this though, is that if it were somehow implemented, defense policy may be more tied to what the people in the country actually want as opposed to what some dickhead and his asshole advisors think. And on that note, I want to bring up another thorn that Bush stuck in my side the other day. He spoke about attacking Iran saying something like "Any thought that we are planning stiking in Iran is rediculous and with that said ALL OPTIONS ARE ON THE TABLE." In other words, we're not talking about it, but we're talking about it, why? Fucking shyster mother fucker piece of shit. Sorry for the rant, have a nice day.