>Allow me to try! Here's something I found from
>everyone's favorite Progressive Policy Institute on
>SSP:
>
>"To renew Social Security's promise for the 21st
>century, we have to find a new way to finance the
>system. By 2032, the program's trust fund will be
>exhausted and tax revenues will only cover 75 percent
>of promised benefits. Where will the money come from
>to pay for the retirement of 77 million boomers who on
>average will live from five to seven years longer than
>their 1940 counterparts?
>
>Almost everyone is looking to the market. The reason
>is simple: By tapping financial markets' high rates of
>return, lawmakers can avoid or at least mitigate such
>politically unpalatable steps as slashing benefits,
>hiking payroll taxes, or borrowing more and returning
>to large government deficits."
>
>http://www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?knlgAreaID=125&subsecID=165&contentID=1307
>
>Hooray for the Third Way!
Don't forget the stirring conclusion!
>The grand bargain sketched here would renegotiate, not abandon, the
>social compact implicit in Social Security. It would offer working
>Americans new opportunities to build personal wealth while asking
>them to take greater responsibility for their retirement security.
>It would convert Social Security from an entitlement based on the
>false promise that everyone can consume more than they produce to a
>system that promotes savings, investment, and greater economic
>self-reliance. And it would embody a newapproach to governing based
>on a key New Democrat insight: That in the Information Age,
>government's role is not to take care of us, but to give us the
>tools we need to take care of ourselves and each other.
But these aren't real Democrats, I guess.
By the way, the piece is dated January 1, 1999. Perspectives might be a bit different now:
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