The American Spectator

br> — John C. Chapman /p>

For all the posturing about Social Security reform the Opposition misses a few salient points:

What about my children? What do I want to see for them? A system that is solvent and free of political whims or collapse? I personally would prefer that my progeny have the knowledge that should life turn against them they have at least some safety net. What better promise could I give than that? I remember the Dems touting “Do it for the children.” for lavishing federal largess on educational expenditures. Seems to me the concept applies here too, only I want the children to be able to use their own money.

Which brings us to the dwindling worker payment base. If current projections are correct then by 2040 or thereabouts there will be two workers for every retiree paying into the system to support them. Well OK, but that is my son and daughter. So why don?t I just cut out the middleman and move in with one of them? Talk about eliminating administrative costs, I just eliminated the need for the Social Security system altogether. Have the bean counters factored that one in? (And back to the multigenerational household of 70 years ago?.) Or better yet why not just have 100% of payroll go to private accounts? We eliminate the need for Social Security on a phase out basis so that in about 50 years there are no administrative costs at all.

And talk about inequity, I find it farcical that the Democrats would in their pursuit of ‘equality’ would deny to everyone else who is not a federal employee the same right that federal employees have of electing to have a portion of their payrolls go to private accounts. Somebody get me a lawyer! I smell a Supreme Court case, Amendment 14, et al. Or at least a GS-11 job somewhere.

p>To the Democrats that sat on their haunches during the State of the Union address the challenge is before you. Bush is accepting answers from all comers. Start dishing up a better idea or get behind the one that is being proposed. This single political event will define whether there is a Democratic Party by 2016. br> — John McGinnis br> Arlington, Texas /p>

Mr. Hogberg’s article, “Insecure Arguments” reminds me of those segments in the television series “Victory At Sea” where the Destroyers are deployed around the perimeter of the Fleet to establish smokescreens that will protect the flagship from attack. He, along with various Republican pundits and talk show hosts, have been deployed to “blow smoke” about the impending doom of the Social Security system in order to hide the flagships inaction on Immigration Reform, Tort Reform, Supreme Court Appointments and to keep the public from discovering that crazy aunt in the attic that the government likes to call Federal Pensions, which will ultimately cause the treasury to go belly up long before Social Security will.

Here are a few cases in point. Asbestos Class Action Law Suits: If the Tort bar has its way they will continue until the Second Coming! More than 60 bankruptcies have been caused by them with great losses to the pensions the companies were holding for their employees and for the Pension Funds that had the misfortune to invest in those companies. Wait till these Tort Lawyers, these leeches in the rectum of the America Body Politic, start sucking the blood out of the Drug Companies with their class actions. Where will the pension funds invest their monies then? Who will invest in these companies? Who will make the medicines for our children and grandchildren?

In my hometown a European company closed. Two hundred jobs paying more than $20.00 an hour in salary and benefits were lost. It is being replaced with a Mexican Company from Monterey, Mexico which will pay 100 new employees $7.00 to $9.00 an hour to make corn chips. They will hire a lot of the new Hispanic immigrants to our area. Many of these are illegals. Nobody is checking.