Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) didn't stop with his plan to make Social Security benefits subject to annual appropriations. Now, he's back to insist that Social Security wasn't set up properly to begin with, that in the midst of the Great Depression, not long after the original Black Friday, with memories still fresh of stock brokers plummeting from windows, that the Trust Fund should have been invested in stocks! I think that at that time his idea might have gotten him locked up for insanity. (The standards for involuntary commitment were looser in those days.) Of course, it's still a bad idea for many reasons but in the 1930s? How ignorant can you be of history?
Seems the more things change, the more they remain teh same. This study from 1959 could have been written in the 1990s (when they pushed for privatization) or the 20000s. https://www.ssa.gov/history/reports/58advise4.html
ReplyDeleteAnd had Johnson or his staff read this https://www.ssa.gov/history/reports/58advise6.html#VIII (Section IX) they might have wondered how the idea that it was set up improperly makes any sense.
Don’t underestimate his plan of attack. He’s using the tried and true trope of reigning in government spending as his basis. Never mind his actions haven’t been clearly defined on how money would actually be saved. His argument of government spending being on autopilot will also resonate with those who like simple stories with easy solutions. But the best part was this: “without fiscal discipline and oversight typically found with discretionary spending, Congress has allowed the guaranteed benefits for programs like Social Security and Medicare to be threatened.”
ReplyDeleteWhatever one thinks of the wisdom of investing the Trust Fund in equities, no less an authority than Milton Friedman, the icon of conservative economists, declared that the Clinton Plan to invest one-third of the Trust Fund in equities back in 1999 was the path to Socialism.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.hoover.org/research/social-security-socialism
The idea was that this level of investment would make the United States Government the single largest owner of stocks in the US and as owners of stocks, could dictate to the companies they owned the policies preferred by the Government. This represented, in Friedman's view, the goal of Socialism, Government ownership of private business
His biggest listed political donor over his career is the "club for growth" a conservative PAC which has funneled over a half million $ to him.
ReplyDeleteGo to club for growth's website and it lists one of its goals as "Create Social Security personal retirement accounts that workers would own and could use to build nest eggs for retirement."
Ron Johnson is losing in polls to a very progressive Dem candidate for the upcoming election. He has never been particularly popular, and fiscal conservatism is out of fashion with the dominant MAGA coalition within the GOP. The new intectellectual right is actually advocating for an expansion of the welfare state to justify abortion bans and promote "family values". (hard to influential they are within the GOP b/c the the party hasn't had a real policy platform in years). The only reason this is newsworthy is because Johnson currently in a tight election and seems intent on cratering his chances at reelection via these very unpopular policy stances.
ReplyDeleteThe much larger concern is the planned “Schedule F” executive order if Trump gets reelected. They are planning to purge the entire administrative state. I imagine SSA will be a key target, but not clear what their specific plans are.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/07/donald-trump-second-term-purge-plans