Mlive.com - Time to Focus on Social Security Solutions Instead of 'Ponzi Scheme' Rhetoric

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By Jonathan Oosting

U.S. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter says his plan to "save Social Security" will not alienate those who currently rely on the retirement program.

"I started from the premise that the majority of people don't want privatization, they don't want to see benefits reduced, they don't want to see the payroll tax increased or the age hike," the Livonia Republican said Tuesday on WJR-AM 760. "So if you know what nobody wants, you have to figure out a way to get something done."

McCotter's legislation, which he unveiled Monday to little fanfare, would allow workers 50 years old and younger to divert a portion of their Social Security benefits into competing"personal savings accounts" managed within the system -- not Wall Street.

"It ties in with the move in the future towards more self control more decision making by the individual," he said, "which is happening in every other aspect of our lives."

The plan would not affect current retirees, he said, because it would not divert any payroll taxes into the personal accounts, a key distinction from past privatization proposals. Rather, the program can only be funded by spending reductions McCotter promised to identify in future companion legislation.

In other words, taxes would keep going into Social Security, but less would be taken out. Peter Goss, Chief Actuary of Social Security, analyzed McCotter's proposal and estimated it would satisfy current obligations and eliminate projected Trust Fund deficits.

Several significant (and controversial) conservative interests -- Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist and the Americans For Prospertity -- have backed the plan, but it has not made much of a splash in the national media.

McCotter, of course, is running for president, but his low polling numbers have kept him from participating in televised debates where fellow candidates have traded blows over Social Security and whether it is "a Ponzi scheme."

"You have a system that is basically Kafka-esque," he said. "You have the media complaining there are no solutions, and when you put them forward they don't cover them."

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