Our World

Bush outlines plan for Social Security-Does it benefit us?

I was actually excited to catch the State of the Union Address on Tuesday night to see what the president has layed out for the next year. A couple points that I picked out in the speech that deal with Social Security:

First, I'm glad that he has layed out a plan to deal with the Social Security problem. As you probably know, as people work throughout their lives they pay into America's Social Security System and then begin drawing money out upon retirement. Some people now believe that by the time people our age are eligible to draw from Social Security (65), the funds will have gone bankrupt because the baby booming generation are expected to draw a lot of money out of the system over the next years, and more would be taken out than paid in.

One solution right now is to privatize Social Security which would allow people to invest money earned into an account of their own. Democrats are not in support of this idea, and Republicans are. I believe that Americans should have some say in where their Social Security money is going. There is talk that the government would limit our powers however by only offering certain types of stock for us to by. I'm not in favor of this. I believe that if Americans were to receive a portion of money to invest it should be invested in a way they would like. I personally favor a retirement account vs. the stock market because a retirement account would guarantee a return with at least 5% interest, while the stock market is a risk.

I think the government needs to fix the social security problem by allowing Americans to invest a part of their money received into a retirement account vs. traditional Social Security. I also learned in Economics that the government is borrowing money from Social Security to finanace other items in the budget. The government needs to leave this money alone and also privatize part of it.

In his State of the Union Address, President Bush did outline a plan to create a committee to address the problem of Social Security and to find a solution. The group will be non-partisan, which means it will not be based on Republican or Democrat values. However, I feel that like many things in our country, the committee is going to favor their party values heavily and have a tough time compromising on a solution. American politicians needs to put parties aside and work out this issue. I think this group is a step in the right direction and that President Bush made this move. I hope this committee can really put party lines aside and work out this issue. The bickering and disagreements need to stop in congress otherwise there will be future consequences for all Americans...except those in congress because of life-long fringe benefits.

posted by Kevin Hurd @ 2/03/2006 01:44:00 PM