Courtesy of Matthew Yglesias for inspiring me. Anyway, as it says in the article, Bush's benefit cuts will be WORSE than what will happen in 2041-2042 when the system has to trim back benefits to keep solvent (although if you've been listening to Bush he'll exaggerate and call that bankrupcy). About 73% of benefits will be paid out, meaning a 27% benefit cut for recipients. Since Bush's plan in the long run will slash benefits by much more (depending on what income bracket you are in) he is more or less bringing us to the situation that he claims he wants to "save" us from. Summary: Bush wants to bring you the future insolvency date TODAY!
May 04, 2005 -- 12:13 PM EDT
/ link / print)
Mississippi Republican Senators turn out to be not too thrilled with the idea of "progressive" indexing of Social Security benefits. And how's this for mumbo-jumbo? The president's "aides say the benefit cuts proposed by Mr. Bush have to be judged against what will happen if nothing is done to shore up the system as the baby boom generation ages and life expectancy increases. Social Security's trustees estimate that if no action is taken, the system can pay full benefits until 2041, and after that will take in only enough through payroll taxes to cover about 73 percent of promised benefits."
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/
Fair enough, sort of. If we change nothing until 2041, and the Social Security Administration's estimates prove correct, then to achieve balance after 2041 wholly through benefit cuts, we would need to cut benefits by about 27 percent. Under the Bush plan, average workers would have their benefits cut by 28 percent by 2075, and 49 percent for higher-income workers. On top of that, the Bush plan doesn't even achieve its ostensible goal of solvency! You would need unspecified further benefit cuts to make the numbers add up, cuts approximately equal in size to the ones Bush has already put on the table.
-- Matthew Yglesias