Read that first paragraph and ash knows: laugh out loud funny or cringe-worthy, it's tempting to go no further. Now take a gander at how much longer is this minor manuscript by ash's local paper's owner, the Copley Press, and completing it will be a "tough job" indeed. But a necessary one in order to appreciate the reward of ash's reply below it. Talk about b.s.ing an old b.s.er.
Social Security System Needs a Fix -- Now
GIVE PRESIDENT BUSH credit for standing his ground. He's not only willing to push for reform on important issues. He keeps pushing. And that's true even when his opponents are pushing back - and then gloating about it.
Look at the State of the Union address. At one point, Bush turned his attention to the nation's aging population and noted that Congress "did not act" last year on the White House proposal to save Social Security. That line prompted a tasteless eruption of applause from Democratic lawmakers, who seemed to revel in the fact that they wouldn't even discuss ideas to repair the nation's most beloved entitlement program.
Bush fired back by giving Democrats this reality check: "Yet the rising cost of entitlements is a problem that is not going away, and with every year we fail to act, the situation gets worse."
A BATTLE between pro- and anti-war T-shirts may have gotten more attention after the speech, but the specter of Social Security reform will haunt us long after the T-shirt slogans are forgotten.
In his speech, Bush proposed a bipartisan commission to examine the full impact of baby boom retirements on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and offer answers on how to navigate the rough waters ahead.
Looking back over the last year and the pitiful debate over Social Security, Americans have the right to feel cheated. For that, there is plenty of blame to go around.
The White House should have done a much better job of selling its reform initiative - even to Republicans, who weren't buying and left the president hanging. Also, Bush should never have let Democrats get away with playing dirty politics by convincing the elderly that their benefits were on the chopping block when that was just not true. In fact, every reform plan out there had exemptions for people 55 and over.
WE HAD HOPED for an informative national dialogue on how to preserve Social Security. But before long, the conversation was mired in competing rhetoric over privatization, when there is so much more that needs to be discussed and dissected.
Ideas like raising the retirement age, means-testing benefits, increasing payroll taxes and others went by the wayside.
Now, we're back where we started with nothing to show for the last year but wasted time and blown opportunities. Except now the clock is ticking even louder than when we started.
This year, the first of about 70 million baby boomers will turn 60. The Rolling Stones may still be playing on tour, but that party can't last forever. And while the Rolling Stones won't be relying on Social Security, soon a flood of their fellow boomers will jam the entryway of the Social Security system.
IT IS SIMPLE math that dictates these retirements will send the system into cardiac arrest if it maintains its current parameters. And, as President Bush pointed out, unless something is done, the situation will only get worse.
While we appreciate the president's enthusiasm and persistence, not to mention his "don't-give-up-the-ship" spirit, let us be blunt: We don't need any more commissions to sit down and study this demographic time bomb. We only need leadership, for someone to step forward and defuse the bomb.
ash's reply:
What a treat. An editorial commiserates with President Bush lamenting the DOA status of his Social Security priva..er, personal savings scheme in the State of the Union address, with headquarter’s footprints all over it.
Then, just for good measure, it scolds the Democrats - never mind the timid opposition party finally refusing to act like weenies - for cheering the sorry fate of Bush’s attempt to reward Wall Street, transparently disguised as a plan to save Social Security by, as it turns out, dismantling it. As if that weren’t enough, the editorial chides those who contributed to its demise for blindly refusing to address concerns over the hugest demographic in history approaching retirement age. Imagine that! Which, as it turns out, is a facet of the imagination, contradicting the fact that Democrats have offered proposals less Draconian than Bush’s ill-conceived “vision.”
Such a laugh. I haven’t been this amused since the editorial in the same space endorsing Bush’s re-election on the basis of how he instantly “rose to action” on the tragic occasion of September 11, 2001. Juxtapose that declaration with the infamous image of a frozen President, and the invention of last year’s word “truthiness” has occurred just in time for Copley Press’ fantasy-based assertions.