Monday, October 18, 2004
Fear, Dishonesty and Fraud
Do remember this. In 1981 Galveston County in Texas decided to remove county employees from the Social Security system. They replaced it with a county plan where every employee owned his own account. The tax structure was virtually the same as with Social Security. A percentage was taken from the employee's paycheck to fund the private plan, and the county matched that amount with a corresponding "contribution." (The idea of a matching contribution is a fraud ... but we'll save that for another time). Like Social Security, the Galveston plan offered a retirement, death and disability benefit. Today when a county worker retires in Galveston County his retirement income exceeds what he was making when he was retired! After privatization of the Galveston retirement plan people see their income go UP, not down when they retire.
So ... why haven't more local governments did what Galveston County did? Because congress passed a law prohibiting hit just two years later. Politicians need Social Security. John Kerry was illustrating that need in Florida over the weekend. He was telling wizened citizens that George Bush was going to take their Social Security away. He knows it's not true, but he also knows that these oldsters don't realize that ... so frighten them to get their votes.
The only plan the Democrats offer is fear, dishonesty and fraud.
