CT Blue

When I started this blog, it was partly in reaction to George Bush’s (remember him?) move to privatize Social Security. That effort failed, despite the initial reaction from “serious” Democrats like Lieberman that they must immediately compromise by caving. The party’s collective spine was stiffened by a lot of grassroots pushback. But, as I pointed out a while back, Republicans never give up, and since Democrats keep trying to meet them halfway, eventually they win. Destroying Social Security has always been the Republican’s Holy Grail, the feather in the cap that each covets. What better epitaph (if you’re Republican), then to be remembered as the guy who doomed millions to poverty. Now Newt Gingrich has stepped to the plate: 

The former House speaker, who has risen in the polls, would allow younger workers to take their share of the payroll tax that funds Social Security and put it in a private account.

Employers would still pay their share of the tax, which would be used to pay benefits for current retirees. But it would create a funding shortfall that Gingrich brushed off.

“That gap is more than covered by the savings” that would come from giving states control of 185 social welfare programs, Gingrich told reporters after a speech that laid out broad concepts but lacked key details.

Gingrich’s plan would cover the near-term deficits by giving to states responsibility for such programs as AmeriCorps volunteers, Section 8 public housing and Pell Grants for college students. He said states were better suited to administer those programs.

Gingrich said his retirement proposal, an idea floated by Republicans before him, would empower voters.

“Wouldn’t you rather control your account?” Gingrich asked an audience of students at St. Anselm College.

His advisers couldn’t say how much the plan would cost, when it would begin or who would be eligible. They did say, however, that current retirees would continue to receive benefits at promised levels.

Peter Ferrara, Gingrich’s senior economic policy adviser, said federal spending as a whole would be reduced by half within the next three decades.

“It’s a lot of reduction,” he said.

At a business leaders’ breakfast earlier in the day in Nashua, Gingrich predicted that the program “would save literally trillions over the next generation.”

Under the plan, workers would be able to do one of two things: continue sending their share of Social Security taxes to the popular, safety-net program or give it to private firms that would compete for those dollars – as much as $20,000 a year, Gingrich estimated.

“No one is ever forced into the (private account) system,” he said after the speech.

Markets would determine how much money workers who chose private accounts would get each month. Gingrich guaranteed a minimum income in case Wall Street collapses like it did in 2008.

As Gingrich spoke Monday, stocks plunged several hundred points by midday as a special congressional panel in Washington appeared ready to declare failure in its attempt to agree on how to trim federal spending by $1.2 trillion over a decade.

Under Gingrich’s plan, the federal government would regulate the private accounts run by private firms to ensure the portfolios were diversified enough to prevent one company or sector from taking down the entire system.

Government approved firms then would compete for consumers, who could move their money among accounts based on fund performance.

Organized labor and advocacy groups such as AARP would be allowed to collaborate with the investment firms to tailor plans to reflect the promises they make in pension plans.

Gingrich’s plan also would treat the private retirement accounts as other investments, which could be passed on as part of an estate.

It would take a book to unpack all the lies, half-truths and fantasies in this “plan”, but lets just consider a few. Gingrich wants to hand our futures over to the same bankers who just blew up the economy. But we should fear not. If they blow up everyone’s pensions the government will bail them out. But when government bails banks out, the money comes from taxpayers, meaning that Gingrich is guaranteeing the taxpayers that if the banks lose their money, he’ll make them pay again and give their second infusion of money right back to the banks that just screwed them. But have no fear of that, because Newt is going to regulate the banks, and we all know how effective banking regulations have been lately, and we can all just imagine how effective regulations written by a Newt Gingrich controlled Treasury Department would be. If you think Timmy Geithner is bad, imagine the industry stooge Newt would put in control of the banks.

As a trojan horse strategy to destroy Social Security, this plan might actually work, given the present day Democratic Party, which seems intent on combining bad politics with bad policy. As a serious attempt to make sure people actually have a way to survive when they get to old to work for increasingly meagre returns, it’s a joke.