A BIG MAN SPOKE TONIGHT

[IntrepidWizard]

I hope you all saw a Honorable man with golden programs speak tonigh and were able to see the Naysayers.

[BamBams]

I sure did Wiz.  I've never seen an address like this one before - with so much emotion, truth, etc.

To me anyway, the liberals looked like a bunch of complete idiots sitting there pouting and booing, while everyone else was clapping - many were in tears also.

I hope voters remember this in 2008

[ironglow]

W is so far above their puny, political whining....those nay-sayers will never " get it "!!!...

[jh45gun]

Yea the whiners are on now giving their side of it. As far as I am concerned it should be the Presidents night and to heck with the liberals

[Mauser]

When the "other side" starts offering solutions to problems that don't always involve taking more money from me and my family and growing the size of government, I'll start taking them more seriously.  Social Security is a (bad) joke for those of us under the age of 45 or so.

[ironglow]

"Privatization" of social Security is a tactic of the Demoncrats to promote obfuscation of the real plan.
   The eventual plan will only offer up to a max of 4% of one's SS contribution to go into the market!
   If you heard the President's speech, he explained that there will be no reason for wall street brokers to ' smack their lips "....they won't be making big bucks from it..

  The beauty of the whole plan is...it will be voluntary...you DON'T HAVE TO PARTICIPATE...

  Judging by past performance...anyone who chooses not to, will probably wish they had...
   
     Still; it's your choice...take it...

[magooch]

I thought the President layed it out as well as it could be done.  No matter how the Dumbocrats slice it, when it gets down to two workers paying the benefits of one pensioner, there's going to be a lot of resentment.

The Democrats think they can fix every problem with a tax increase, but I think this time they'd better get more creative and live up to their responsibility of keeping one of their own programs viable--without putting an even greater burden on workers and employers.

By the way, the cap has been raised--recently.  There's a limit to this tactic also.  Higher income folks will soon tire of paying the lions share of the payroll tax, without the prospect of an increase in the benefit.  It's called wealth transfer and it isn't fair or right.  Penalizing hard work and success is just wrong.

[Graybeard]

As a retired Federal Civil Service employee I was given the chance to participate in just this same plan once long long ago. We had basically three options given to us.

Option one was status quo and that is what I at first chose. Oh was that a mistake.

Option two was to put up to a maximum of five percent (5%) of our income into a fund called the Thrift Savings Plan. At first there were only a couple ways this money could be invested either stock market or government bonds. When I eventually decided to go to this plan I chose government bonds and then watched the stock market make huge bucks for those in it and not me.

I jumped in and immediately the stock market dropped and I lost my money. No not all of it but a large sum of it. I jumped out quickly and got back into the government bonds. The stock market quickly rose and again and if I'd not gotten out I'd have quickly regained my lost money but by cashing out I couldn't.

I later split my money with more in stocks and less in bonds. All went well until we neared the year 2000. It had been my intention to move my money out of stocks as I just didn't trust the market with the change of century looming. But the market dropped on me too soon and I was stuck with falling stock prices. I vowed to stay the course this time tho and did. The value of my investment continued to drop and drop. I lost thousands of dollars.

Finally last year I cashed out and took what was left of my money at a time when the market was about as high as I figured it was gonna go.


Option three was to give up our Civil Service Retirement Plan and go with a new one called FERS. I think that was Federal Employement Retirement System or some such. I didn't buy into it. In this one you could put in up to five or maybe it was ten percent of your income into the TSP account. The government matched some portion of this. Those who made the move and put in the max and got it into stocks made out like bandits early. Dunno how it worked for those who took this at retirement time tho.

So this plan is not new. Federal Employees have been on it for a great many years. It can work. But it can cost you a major portion of your savings too. It is definitely a gamble.