When I first heard that President Bush had proposed an income indexed Social Security benefit, I knew that his "allies," the republican journalists, were going to savage him. And at least some of them have.[1] I, on the other hand, thought it brilliant, and George Will seems to agree.[2]
First of all, it is nearly unattackable. This is doing exactly what the indexed income taxes, so loved by the democrats, does, it hurts the rich. Oh, it cuts into middle class benefits also, an aspect I rather dislike, as it will impact me, and it is particularly bad since we in the middle class pay the bulk of the taxes to begin with, but for tax purposes we are rich, so why not for Social Security? Oh, if only the liberals could be effectively called on this one…
Secondly, as Mr. Will points out, as our most influential citizens realize they do not need, and do not benefit from, Social Security, there will begin to be some incentive to disband it entirely, eliminating one program the federal government has no place administering. On the other hand, there will continue to be some incentive to expand it to "help" the richer citizens, but that always exists, and we have resisted it fairly effectively in welfare.
All of which demonstrates why the democrats are so opposed to it, they cannot bear to see this leash around our collective necks loosened. They would have us dependent on the government for everything, so that they can use the threat of cut benefits to enact whatever social policies they see fit to propose. They would leave us trapped in a fairly classic trap between a carrot and a whip.
[1] http://www.townhall.com/columnists/alanreynolds/ar20050505.shtml [2] http://www.townhall.com/columnists/georgewill/gw20050508.shtml