pinions of buddy don: soshul securty

tuther day i gut that lil notice they send out folks thats been puttin money into the soshul securty system. mosly twuz splainayshuns bout how much i paid ever year since i started earnin wages in 1970, but the part that gut me a'wunderin agin wuz this lil comment writ into the form:

*Your estimated benefits are based on current law. Congress has made changes to the law in the past and can do so at any time. The law governing the benefit amounts may change because, by 2042, the payroll taxes collected will be enough to pay only about 73 percent of scheduled benefits.

twuz a reeminder bout that lockbox fuss n fite mr bush had with mr gore in the las eleckshun. mr gore kep astin mr bush wood he put the soshul securty surplus in a lockbox to make shore it dint git spent on other thangs. mr bush woodnt commit toot n i reckon we all know why now. thang is, soshul securty taxes is still runnin a surplus rite now. problem is, them borry n spend publicans in cuntrol spend that money n more jes as quick as they kin to fund thar deficit spendin, mosly sos the incum tax rate on incum over $200,000 in a year could be lowerd.

whut i caint git is ifn them publicans bleeve so much in puttin the soshul securty money at risk by lettin folks invest it in the stock market, why couldnt they keep the surplus soshul securty funds sepert frum the rest of the gummint revenues n start investin it in bulk in a good mix of equities n bonds n mutchul funds? seems lack we wood be awash in money to pay fer folkses retirement. in sted, they dun been spendin it faster than it cums in.

whut bugs me the most bout that is how mr greenspan hepped git the publicans in 1987 to raze the mos regressiv tax we gut, the payroll tax, spozedly sos thard be a nuff of a surplus to cover the projeckted shortfall that wood cum whenever us baby boomers gut to retire (we wont git whut we wuz promissd, witch thats the only promiss we kin be shore bout). twuz a trick to raze taxes on everbidy, witch that wurks out to be a grater percentage of yer incum the less incum ye gut. after ye pay the maximum, ye dont pay no more, witch that means ye dont pay the same percent that other folks has gut to pay.

as luck wood have it, them publicans gut em a nuther plan to fix the problem, witch thats to borry n spend even faster sos folks kin put individual retirement accounts together at a cost of only a cuple trillions of dollars. thisn beats the heck out of investin the surplus in bulk in sted of spendin it on tax cuts n then lettin each individual investor add to the cost of the program by havin to pay a broker to handle thar investments.

i live in a verr blue state witch ye caint hardly find nobidy that wood add mitt to votin fer mr bush. i wurk in a verr red industry, wall street fine ants, n our firm wuz amung the leaders in givin money to the bush camp pain. but even so, thay aint hardly nobidy that add mitts to votin fer bush. folks sez thangs lack this in sted:

Look at the bright side. Our side lost, but it means more money in our pockets. Can you imagine the profits we'll get from all the private investment accounts? We'll have bonuses we can just barely imagine now. And they'll barely be taxed!

i have herd this verr argument made overn over agin, sumtimes by the richest bankers ye kin magine, folks that kin sell over $10 million in stock n hardly thank tiz much of a trans ackshun. they add mitt they dont need more money, that they caint even spend all they dun gut. but as one feller splained it to me one time, money jes turns into a score fer such folks whar the one that dies with the most wins.

i caint hep but wunder how they celebrate the victry.