As you've probably heard, the republican party gave it's members a handout with talking points and information on privatization (sorry, "Personal Accounts") to "save social security". I downloaded it via "Talking Points Memo".
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_01_30.php#004600
Part of the presentation includes sample speeches, which address specific issues that people have related to privatization. One of the major problems they have is convincing people that there is a crisis, given that we have been paying into a massive trust fund that should fund social security debts well into the middle of this century. I believe that the way they've dealt with this issue is a serious Achilles heel that we should address. (Continued in extended entry)
Basically, they are arguing that the money in the trust fun isn't there. Of course, it really isn't - it's in government bonds, which are considered extremely reliable. But the republicans are arguing that these bonds are not reliable, but are worthless pieces of paper.
If you are working, the Social Security system takes a lot of money from you: over $6,400 from the average American family, according to the latest figures from the government. Much of that money goes to benefits for today's seniors, but what's left over--one dollar out of every six--the government is just spending. That leftover money is the "trust fund" you've heard about. It's not saved for you; it is just being spent."
(From: Appendix 2, "Social Security Speech For Audiences Ages 18+", Page 10)
According to this logic, the average family is paying over a thousand dollars in taxes each year to fund the federal government, in the form of a "loan" that the government has no intention of paying back. This has been going on ever since the trust fund was established. Currently, there is about $1.5 Trillion in the trust fund, making this the largest retroactive tax hike in the history of the United States.
The first argument people make for doing nothing is that the Social Security trust fund can tide us over. After all, they say, the trust fund contains billions of dollars in government bonds.
Unfortunately, those bonds won't solve the problem. It's not that the Social Security trust fund has been looted. But neither is it, as some say, as good as gold. The real problem is that the Social Security trust fund is an empty promise.
The reason is that the Federal government has been borrowing from the trust fund for years in order to keep the rest of the government functioning. The trust fund contains no diamonds, or bars of gold, or wads of cash set aside for when the Baby Boomers retire. Instead, the trust fund contains a bunch of IOUs from the government, totaling more money than you can ever imagine, promising someday to pay back to the trust fund all that it has borrowed.
As humorist P.J. O'Rourke once remarked, "Having a Social Security trust fund is the exact same thing as not having a Social Security trust fund."
(From: Appendix 2, "Social Security Personal Accounts Speech For Audiences Ages 50 and Older", Page 5)
This assumption that the trust fund is not going to be paid back amounts to a 2% retroactive tax hike on all middle and lower class working Americans. The tax was paid on our raw income, with no deductions for those who itemize. This is, or should be, an outrage. I want the world to know that republicans are proposing that we treat the social security surplus trust fund as the largest regressive, retroactive tax in U.S. history.