It's not every day I have a revelation along the lines of ``Well gee, that Bush fellow had a good point.''
In good liberal fashion, I could probably count on one finger the number of times this has happened.
However, I have come to agree with him on Social Security. The system is simply broken, and we need something to fix it. Conspiracy theorists and whack-job economists aside, most agree with that statement. The heart of the disagreement is how to fix it.
What brought up this change of heart, since it's been out of the news for over a year? For me, it was pre-marital counseling.
You heard me right. TV sitcoms would have us believe premarital counseling is the time when your pastor asks you uncomfortable questions about sex.
My fiancee and I got advice of a different sort - rudimentary financial advice.
Things like ``save your money'' and ``be wary of credit card debt.'' His No. 1 rule for retirement: Don't have your plans depend on getting money from the government.
Now, this was not advice from a Ph.D. in economics. This was not from a Wall Street-savvy investor. This was from a Methodist pastor in rural Nebraska - not exactly someone who would rock the boat unless it needed rocking.
If he had come to this conclusion, there was a good hard reason, not just political posturing.
I decided it was time for me to accept the fact I'm not going to get money from Social Security, and neither will my future wife nor kids. Further, it was time for me to do research and separate the facts of life from the B.S. Here's what I found.
Fact of life: If you spend more money than you earn, you eventually will run out.
Nonpartisan estimates say Social Security will start losing money in 2018 and run out of money in 2040. Even with modest error margins, today's traditional college students will be in their fifties then. So if the program has a meltdown, they will have donated 6 percent of their life's income to a program that will never benefit them.
There is a huge number of baby boomers between retirement and me, but not a whole lot of cash. And the reality is that Social Security is not a piggybank. The dollar I put in today will not be the dollar I take out when I'm 65.
Rather, the money put in today is spent on a senior today, and there is about $1.75 trillion in the bank to be used for rainy days when the number of older people outnumbers the number of workers.
Judging by the amount of baby boomers, those manning this huge bank account think rainy days are coming.
Fact of life: Politicians suck at handling my money.
The greatest example of this is President George W. Bush. Before Sept. 11, 2001, and the ``war on terror,'' Bush started on an unprecedented spending spree, that went into full gear at the start of Iraq. Budget surplus in 2000: $230 billion. Budget deficit in 2005: $427 billion.
Better yet, during the fiscal years from 2001-04, the Bush administration estimated there would be $1.288 trillion in surplus. In reality, there was $850 billion in deficit. Of the $2 trillion difference, only 22 percent was because of the war on terrorism. About half was because of economic and technical re-estimates and another quarter because of tax breaks.
Given what the government can do to modest surpluses, does one honestly believe government officials have enough balls to cut back on senior benefits and raise taxes to save Social Security?
Offending seniors and raising taxes are political suicide, and no one is going to ``take one for the team'' in this game.
Heck, some days I'm not convinced we're all even on the same team, with how Congress acts these days.
Given that politicians are to savings accounts what holes are to buckets of water, I would much rather be the person in charge of my money, not Bush, and his idea of private saving accounts instead of Social Security is sounding better and better everyday.
I fully understand Wall Street will profit from all the investments more than I will. I understand there's a good chance a private account will give me less benefits than Social Security recipients receive now. It's almost a given: No matter what happens, I will never receive what my grandfather gets today.
We are all faced with a scenario: Do we choose to pay 6.2 percent of our income to a savings account that, depending on the market, may not make us as much money when we retire? Or do we pay 6.2 percent to a government program, only to have it crash and burn. Then, come retirement, just have a new politician say, ``Sorry, buddy, better luck next time.''
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