One man's view of the world, from the top of this great big rock somewhere in the middle of God's Country, with an eye toward freedom....or at least some way to get back down without goin' over the edge.

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Location: West Virginia, United States

Former U.S. Army, SPC E-4, Veteran of Operation Desert Storm. If you are or have ever been a soldier, you have friends in my house.

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

"This Bill Is Bigger Than Both Of Us, Baby": Another Reason Why S.S. Reform Hasn't Sailed Yet

Tip o'the rock to the Godfather himself for pointing this out to us short-attention-span types (that is to say, ME) :

According to this article, Bill Clinton actually had an initiative of his own to fix Social Security while he was the Big Kahuna, and it was getting some pretty good support from both sides of the building.

If I understand it correctly, however, there is one big difference between Bill's idea and George's.
Unlike George's plan, which calls for people to be able to put 4% of their payroll tax into individual private accounts that they could manage however they see fit, Bill's plan was that the government would re-invest 5% of whatever Social Security revenue came in---as a whole---in government projects.

You know.... like what Democrats in Maryland today want to do with 8% of Walmart's revenue.

Anyway, according to the article, things were looking up for this plan, it was on the fast track to pretty probable success...
...and then the whole thing got blown to pieces. (Sorry, folks...I just couldn't stop myself.)

So why are Democrats today so jumpin'-up-and-down-like-monkeys-on-amphetamines AGAINST letting the good ship "S.S. Reform" sail out on her maiden voyage?

Simple...they won't be the ones steering it.

In closing, I will relate a poem I read once which was hanging on a wall inside a boat. I don't know how relevant it is to all of the above, but hey....I like boats, it's a neat bit of prose, and dammit, it's MY blog and I'll take it wherever I want. So here goes:

I'm not allowed to steer the boat, the horn I cannot blow.
I'm not allowed to figure out how far it's s'posed to go.
I'm not allowed to swab the deck, or even ring the bell....
But watch the damn thing spring a leak, and see who catches hell!