JUST AS IT TOOK A DEMOCRAT TO PASS WELFARE REFORM AND COMPULSORY PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE...:

This Is How We'll Fix Social Security (Derek Thompson, Aug 20 2010, The Atlantic)

Some solutions for fixing our federal pension program are, in fact, pretty straightforward. One is to raise the Social Security tax on employers and employees above 6.2 percent. Another is to raise the "ceiling" of taxable income so that Social Security taxes apply to dollars earned over $107,000. Another is to push back the normal retirement age, or the age at which seniors can receive full benefits.

Those solutions are easy enough to grasp. But one of the most popular ideas for reforming Social Security is a little more complicated. It would involve making benefits more progressive by writing smaller checks to wealthier retirees.

...so too will it be the UR who gives us the means-testing the GOP has been trying to add to SS since Ronald Reagan was president. Unfortunately, such minimal reforms extend the life of the program so far that they remove any pressure for privatization.

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 21, 2010 8:14 AM