Donald Luskin performs a public service – sort of. He warns us that the Bush White House still wants to deform the current Social Security system: But reform isn’t dead. It can’t die. Reform is inevitable, because the Social Security system really is in crisis, in the sense that the accounting mirage of the Trust […]

The issue of immigration has been well-documented as exposing a rift among Republicans in recent days; articles in the Washington Post, The Economist, and the Financial Times are but a few examples. But the political left seems to me to be nearly as split on the issue. Numerous readers of this blog have expressed serious […]

Mike Crapo has joined James DeMint, Rick Santorum, Lindsey Graham, and Tom Coburn with another spin on Social Security privatization that Phil Kerpen endorses: The DeMint-Crapo amendment puts the possibility of meaningful, pro-worker Social Security reform back into play. If the Democrats are smart they will latch onto it before the train leaves the station. […]

Kevin Drum writes: Like the creature that won’t die no matter how many bullets you put through its heart, Social Security privatization is back for an encore in President Bush’s 2007 budget proposal … The full faith and credit of the United States government is just an “empty promise.” It’s sort of like listening to […]

Eduardo Porter’s New York Times article entitled Illegal Immigrants Are Bolstering Social Security With Billions describes how one Mexican citizen – along with perhaps seven million other “illegal immigrant” workers: are now providing the system with a subsidy of as much as $7 billion a year … Most immigration helps Social Security’s finances, because new […]

Was President Bush technically correct when he declared the Social Security Trust Fund (SSTF) bankrupt? In one corner, we have Victor and Andrew Samwick who defend Bush’s use of this term. In the other corner, we have Max Sawicky warning Professor Samwick about his Kool-Aid and Brad Setser extending the definitions to the discussion over […]