Bush's "plan" to "save" social security...

I say "plan" because he doesn't really have a plan (not publicly available anyway) in the sense that people normally would define "plan". what he has is a list of talking points about the problem and calls for help for a solution:

"...I'll tell you this: If this federal government doesn't act, your bill, your payroll taxed are going to have to go up a lot in order to pay the promises made to me. Or the government is going to have to slash the benefits. Or the government is going to have to make dramatic cuts in other programs. And so I see a problem. I think the math is clear. And so now is the time to get something done.

And so I stood up in front of the United States at my State of the Union address and said to the Congress, here's the problem. And I'm going to put some ideas on the table, ideas that I didn't necessarily think of...good ideas about different ways to permanently fix the problem. And that's what Congress must do; it must permanently fix the problem..."
"And so now is the time to bring people together from both parties to have a permanent fix. And all ideas are on the table. And I'm looking forward to discussing any good idea with a Democrat or a Republican."
-- Bush's "plan" speech 4/15/05

OK George, I'm putting this on the table for you: cut medical benefits, keep drug costs high, increase subsidies to the junk food and tobacco agribusiness. sick Americans won't live long enough to soak up our precious trust fund! instead of pay-as-you-go, we'll call it "pay-till-you-go" :)

the GOP website says it's the Democrats fault. oh, that's constructive :p

what does the liberal media establishment say?

"...Eyeing the failure of President Bill Clinton's health care plan in 1994, which sank in part from its complexity, Bush has avoided laying out a specific plan whose details would be open to attack. But this has caused problems for its supporters, who say Democrats have filled in the blanks. "It's one thing to say, 'No, that's not what the plan does,' " said David John, a private-account supporter at the conservative Heritage Foundation. "It's another to say, 'We don't think that's what the plan does, but we don't know for sure.' "
--SF Chronical 3/4/05

so that's why there's no plan!

can this be true? let's check the whitehouse web page. yep, there's no plan there!
ok, a little more searching and I found the SS website
does show somebody with a real plan -- it's congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. here he separates fact from fiction. hmmm, maybe? good luck dude!

credits to
habitatgirl, Pursuit, and gothamimage.
they have done good writeups on the subject, generated plenty of responses and made me wonder. what is W up to?