The Real American Crisis

by Gene

While the President spent the majority of his speech glad-handing to his fellow Republicans and preaching about the future perils of Social Security, one might think the sky is falling. After all, what’s a current 29 year old to do in 40 years when the well runs dry on Social Security? Where will his retirement come from?

Don’t worry my son, for the President has a vision. Private savings accounts, where you will be allowed to gamble away your “security”. Oh, and don’t forget about the billions and billions of dollars that the securities brokers and financial institutions stand to make on this windfall of a deal. (These are the same lobbies, by the way, that donated tens of millions to your campaign the last few years. Shhhhhhh, don’t tell. Maybe no one will notice.)

Yes, the President is looking to turn the New Deal into the Raw Deal. While the plan is disguised as a way to help the average American and keep the program afloat before it goes bankrupt, it really turns out to be a major kick-back to Mr. Bush’s supporters. It also goes along the lines of Bush’s “ownership” philosophy. Basically, in the world of Bush, you must own something to be something. He said so in his campaign. “I believe that a person that owns something has a stake in the future of America.” That’s all well and good Mr. President. It’s even better if you come from a family of millionaires who cajoles with millionaires and has no need to worry about financial insecurity.

The most disturbing trend in this new debate on Social Security is that the President is once again misleading this country about a “crisis” that isn’t a crisis at all.

Mr. Bush’s staff has once again concocted its “telling numbers” by devising their own formulas for when Social Security ends. These new formulas tell a shocking number: that Social Security will be bankrupt in 42 years. If you look at the real method these numbers are determined, you’d see that Social Security is projected to have a slight deficit in 50 years, but nothing that can’t be fixed with slight tweaking.

The program that DOES need the most work is the healthcare industry and Medicare.

According the government’s annual statistics, Medicare stands to have a projected deficit five times larger than Social Security in much shorter time. Combine that with the ever-increasing costs of health care in this country and, ladies and gentlemen, here’s your real crisis.

How many of you have seen double-digit percentage increases in health care employee contributions the last four years? How is it that a small, 80+ year old business in Livonia, Michigan, Awrey Bakery, has seen its employee contributions for family health coverage rise from $450 to $820 in only three years!

If you a looking for a true crisis folk, you have one. And, this crisis doesn’t have the potential to be here in 40-50 years. It’s here now and we are all dealing with it.

The sooner the President sees this, the better. Unfortunately, in his neo-conservative world of millionaires and boosters, they never have to worry about health care cost.

It’s amazing how much brighter the real world looks when you are living in one made of fantasy.