Social Security
The Republican Congress is about to attempt a massive program to privatize Social Security. The original intent of the Social Security Act was to provide a safety net for American workers so that they would have at least some financial security in their retirement years. Some Republicans are even touting Bush as the "new" FDR, but one who wants to make an impact equal to FDR's in a reverse manner... that is, through privatization. Well, Bush is certainly no FDR. I know. I'm old enough to have been there.
REDUX believes that such an approach would be a disaster and is deemed desirable by Republicans only because of the huge windfall that it would bring to the financial markets. The brokers can't wait for the opportunity to hawk some of their dubious wares to a generally unsophisticated public that would be easy prey for pitches that implied quick, large profits. Social Security was not intended to be nor should it be a market-oriented "pie-in-the-sky" huckster-based government-sponsored system designed to milk the needy of their limited funds. We don't need a reverse Robbin' Hood in the White House, stealing from the poor to give to the rich.
Listen to FDR tell it as he envisioned it.
Audio Clip of Speech of Franklin Delano Roosevelt at the Ceremony of the signing of the Social Security Act in 1935.
From SecurityOnline; the Official Website of the Social Security Administration
http://www.ssa.gov/history/fdrstate.html
