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New York Sun Blasts Clinton On Social Security
February 21st 11:33:51 AM
Here's an excerpt of a refreshing editorial from the New York Sun:
"Mrs. Clinton evidently supports perpetuating a benefit that doesn't really
help anyone and also believes teenagers should be allowed to drop out of
high school if they want. Maybe she's right, maybe not. One solution would
be to let the market decide by allowing people to invest their Social
Security deductions in private accounts of their own. The accounts would
be heritable by anyone, solving one problem with the current $255 payout -
it can only go to a surviving spouse or child, leaving other family and
friends in the lurch if someone dies without a suitable payee."
Read the whole editorial.Senator Clinton has concluded that fear mongering about Social Security
makes for good fundraising. She recently sent out two e-mails in three
days warning that President Bush is robbing widows and orphans by
proposing, in his latest budget, the elimination of the $255 lump-sum
death benefit currently paid out to help alleviate funeral expenses and by
seeking to condition eligibility for monthly survivor benefits for 16- and
17-year-olds on whether the teenagers stay in school.
Mrs. Clinton's hyperventilation aside, grandmothers and Oliver Twist
look-alikes will not suddenly be shunted into the streets of Manhattan or
Dubuque. No one is proposing any reduction in the $90 billion Social
Security pays out each year in monthly survivors' benefit checks. The $255 checks are a holdover from the Eisenhower era - the amount on the check hasn't increased since 1954. Back then, $255 might have gone a long way toward covering burial costs, but today the average price of a funeral is $6,500 including casket but not cemetery costs, according to the National Funeral Directors Association.
As for the orphans, the administration is only trying to extend to 16- and 17-year-olds the same rules that already apply to 18-year-old
survivors. Although survivor benefits would normally not cover
18-year-olds, the program makes an exception for those who are still
finishing high school. The administration wants to extend that exception
down the age ladder to transform it into an inducement for teenagers to
stay in school.
Mrs. Clinton evidently supports perpetuating a benefit that doesn't really
help anyone and also believes teenagers should be allowed to drop out of
high school if they want. Maybe she's right, maybe not. One solution would be to let the market decide by allowing people to invest their Social
Security deductions in private accounts of their own. The accounts would
be heritable by anyone, solving one problem with the current $255 payout - it can only go to a surviving spouse or child, leaving other family and friends in the lurch if someone dies without a suitable payee.
Mrs. Clinton and her Democratic colleagues are blocking such a reform. As a result, the administration is left trying to prioritize among different
elements of an increasingly strained entitlement. In this case, the
president hopes to use the $200 million it would liberate to shore up
other parts of the system, like administering the disability program. This
kind of decision has been forced on the administration by politicians who
aren't willing to allow more serious reform. If Mrs. Clinton is unhappy
about how the president has struck the balance in this case, she could
take the decision out of the hands of this, or any future, administration
by supporting personal accounts instead of merely sending out fundraising letters.
Posted by Chris Schrimpf
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