A Cold Day on Wall Street

The Used Car Salesman in Chief’s efforts to close the deal on private Social Security accounts is going about as well as Willy Loman’s last road trip. That said he’s changing his pitch. Since the main resistance seems to be coming from geezers like Bill, he’s now running around looking for senile blue haired crowds to cheer when he says they’re protected. Even in this he’s stumbling as sign waving perky old grandmothers shout him down.

It’s all well and good to promise us fogies that we’ll be safe under his program of personal accounts. But presidents can change their minds. “Read my lips, ” was a whopper told by UCSIC’s Dad on the way to tax increase signing in the Rose Garden.

As an aside the UCSIC promised to put 10,000 border patrol officers on the job at the Mexican border over the next several years. His own budget for 2006 cut that baby out. But, even assuming his sincerity in something really important like personally signing the check for Grandma’s dog food, the UCSIC can only keep his promise until noontime on January 20, 2009 – not very far at all into the privatization scheme. The same goes for those honorable boys and girls working on Capitol Hill. As Mark Twain once opined, “The legislature’s in session; lock up the women and children.”

With something like ten trillion borrowed dollars required to fund the switchover to private accounts over the next three decades, who’s to say that even well intentioned government officials will find that difficult if not impossible given whatever crisis de jour happens along. Bumps in the road can happen; some of us remember the Great Depression, W.W.II, Korea, Vietnam, and even 13% home loans under Smiley from Georgia. During each of these little twists, Washington pols did their damnedest to rob Peter to pay Paul.

If in a couple or three decades from now those private accounts head south for a winter vacation when a deep chill hits Wall Street and there’s a three percent cost of living increase due for those millions of folks now fifty-five years old and older who are still around, there’ll be heat on those fine successors to the present incumbents in the Congress to defer that raise until next year.

So while Wild Bill won’t be around to write a nasty little blog calling those charlatans by the names they deserve, take his word for it and don’t rush to call your senator’s office and encourage him to make your grandchild rich. Let’s be cool and just save old FDR’s program. He lashed those nasty representatives of Wall Street plutocrats into voting for Social Security. Don’t let the UCSIC let their grandkids get their paws back in your wallets.

Blog on!

Wild Bill