Social Security Reform

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that the Bush Plan states (1) "personal accounts" would be voluntary, (2) social security money would be invested in a "conservative mix of bond and stock funds" which would have the opportunity to earn a higher rate of return than what is being provided now and (3) this would supplement the worker's "traditional social security check". The author presents opponents of this plan including AARP (American Association of Retired Persons), the largest advocacy organization for senior citizens in America, which opposes creating accounts out of the contributions workers currently make into Social Security because such accounts actually worsen Social Security's long-term financial health, draining revenues out of Social Security at the very time boomers begin to retire. The paper concludes that it is important to remember that the Social Security trust fund is not a pile of cash but rather just a bookkeeping gimmick in which one part of the government promises money to another part of the government.

Table of Contents
What is the Bush Plan?
Why is President George Bush Pushing Hard for his Plan
Opposition
Facts about Social Security
Business Week Reporter Paul Craig Roberts
The Bush Campaign
The AARP (American Association of Retired Persons)
What are Some Proposed Solutions to the Social Security System?
The Conservative Publication the National Review

From the Paper:

"The Democrats have countered with ads of their own, according to the Associated Press (Raum, 2005) on Sunday, March 13. The Democrats call Bush's proposal to privatize Social Security "a risky privatization scheme." The Democrats' Saturday radio broadcast on March 12 featured the grandson of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (James Roosevelt Jr.). He said: "In 1935, my grandfather signed the Social Security Act into law, ensuring that Americans retired with financial security." But "unfortunately," he continued, "President Bush and Washington Republicans" do not share the belief of "the guiding principle that America's workers deserve a secure retirement." Roosevelt and other Democrats complain that privatizing Social Security will punish workers "in times of long market downturns," because the investment Bush is talking about on the Wall Street market wouldn't deliver as high a return as it would in economic boom times, the AP story pointed out. The article also mentioned that the most recent AP poll shows the Bush Social Security reform proposals gaining only a 37% positive result from the public."

More papers on Social Security Reform:

• Argumentative Essay # 106685 : "Social Security Reform"
• Essay # 46168 : "Social Security Reform"
• Research Paper # 60221 : "The U.S. Social Security Reform"
• Cause and Effect Essay # 7914 : "Social Security Reform"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: