The Ownership Society Won't Be Able to Afford to Own Anything
 

In an attempt to lure voters into thinking he has addressed the domestic crises devastating the American people, Mr. Bush will announce some programs during his state of the union address. On the surface they seem fine, but those who will stop and think about it will have no problem seeing the flaws in what the GOP will announce as "the Ownership Society".

Bush wants us to adopt a "responsibility culture", but from a man whose net worth is estimated between $9 million and $26 million, and admitted, "I don't understand how poor people think", his programs are unrealistic.

Some of the programs that will be part of his new "Ownership Society" include:

Privatizing Social Security This would allow workers to decide where to invest their Social Security account. The idea is not a new one. It has been around for awhile but always rejected since it would endanger retirement accounts that would benefit from stock market highs but could risk wiping them out in a crash, leaving seniors with nothing. Like most of the Bush legislation, the only sure benefit would be for the big brokerage houses that are campaign contributors.

Portable Health Insurance Premiums would we subsidized by tax credits, Medicare would be expanded so more people would qualify and small businesses could, as some programs already allow, form pools to be able to qualify for lower cost group plans. Tax payers would get a lump sum after filing their 1040s.

Re-employment Accounts A lump sum would replace unemployment benefits which could be used by a layoff victim for re-training, child care, a car, a move to a better job market or anything else they feel would benefit them.

These are supposed to, as conservative New York Times writer David Brooks puts it, "give workers the tools they need to cope." Not knowing how poor people think, Mr. Bush doesn't realize that bills continue to pile up while one is unemployed and poor people think about paying them off. With 3 million jobs gone and more going overseas every day, it may take longer than anticipated to find employment, even with re-training. Another reality multimillionaires don't consider is that people who have never had a large amount of money at one time simply may not have the skills to be able to budget a large windfall to last until new employment is found. It isn't a subject taught in our schools that turn out graduates with no life skills.

When you hear these proposals in the SOTU address, keep in mind the No Child Left Behind Act, Bush's promise that was left behind because he neglected to fund it. The $15 billion African AIDS relief was another un-kept promise. The new programs that the administration will be promising us is being proposed with a budget of $50 to $80 billion over 10 years. Taking the higher figure, that would allow $8 billion a year. This is enough to provide healthcare for only three percent of the 44 million uninsured Americans. Three percent! That would leave nothing for any other proposed program in the under funded "Ownership Society". It will be touted as a solution to our domestic economic problems to get the votes of those who have no math skills or common sense to see that these programs don't even work on paper much less in practice.

It would appear that there are those in Washington who also don't have the skills to be able to budget a large windfall.

12-27-03