Appleton Post-Crescent - Ryan's Social Security Bill is a Loser

Quote the editorial:

Editorial: Social Security bill is a big net loser

Here’s another reason why the leading Social Security “reform” bill in the House is a bad idea: It’ll increase the federal government’s massive budget deficit.

Despite claims by the bill’s sponsors — including Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis. — that their plan wouldn’t grow the deficit, it does just that.

An analysis by the Social Security Administration shows that the GROW Accounts Act would add $851 billion to the $333 billion deficit over 11 years.

That’s because the bill would set up personal accounts for workers younger than 55, using bonding to finance them until 2016. Then it would use surplus Social Security taxes only. The bonding creates the deficit.

So for a program that adds hundreds of billions of dollars to our national debt, we get to keep the Social Security program solvent for an additional two years. Does that sound like a good deal to you? It doesn’t sound like one to us, either.

Proponents of the bill say this is just the first step in reforming Social Security to keep in solvent long into the future. But this first step is a doozy, which does little to accomplish the ultimate goal while plunging us deeper into another problem — the deficit.

http://www.wisinfo.com/postcrescent/news/archive/opinion_21881159.shtml