[Rhodes22-list] Political - for Brad's Eyes - not relatedtosailing!

[stan]

Brad,

I do not even remember his name yet but the senate minority leader sounded 
good to me, so far (another Truman type?)

Re SS. from a selfish point of view Rose and I are getting ours so why worry 
(but you know I need diversionary entertainment).  So I'll ad that we have 
thought that everyone was looking at this program myopically.  It really 
either was meant to be, or should have been meant to be, a Social Security 
Insurance program where everyone pays into it and only those who need it 
when the time comes take the benefits..  My father-in-law was modestly 
wealthy and kept getting his SS checks which amazed us kids because he 
simply didn't need it and so would put it into the stock market - he was 
ahead of Bush's time.... .

My guess is that while the president is out there pushing his investing in 
the market idea, the market is going to be crashing and kill the vote.

stan/ec
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "brad haslett" <flybrad at yahoo.com>
To: "stan" <stan at rhodes22.com>; "The Rhodes 22 mail list" 
<rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Sent: Friday, February 18, 2005 9:35 AM
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Political - for Brad's Eyes - not 
relatedtosailing!


> Stan,
>
> One of the names that keeps coming up for the Dems in
> 2008 is Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen.  Evan Bayh
> shot himself in the foot with a lot of moderates over
> the Condi vote.  Bredesen was Mayor of Nashville, a
> self-made multi-millionare from the health care
> industry, from the Northeast originally, and I voted
> for him as Governor and probably could as President.
> Anyway, Bredesen just last month made massive cuts in
> Tennessee's universal health-care program, Tenn-Care,
> because it wasn't sustainable and was bankrupting the
> state.  I think nearly everyone with a heart wants
> universal access to health care but these huge social
> programs have so far proven difficult to administer.
> Ever been to a hospital in China?  Change in our
> current system is certainly needed but massive
> government take-over of health care hasn't worked all
> that well in the communist/socialist countries and I
> don't see it working well here either.
>
> Now as to SS.  Did you read what Greenspan had to say?
> Certainly everyone that has bought into the myth of
> SS, like my parents, need to be protected.  But for my
> kids, they need to be told the truth.  When the
> program started the ratio was 40 workers for every
> recipient.  Now its 3 to one.  When I start drawing
> benefits (I'm not holding my breath on that and am
> planning otherwise) the ratio will be 2 to 1.  This is
> a no-brainer Stan.  The numbers don't add up.  When
> you politize the math and scare the shit out of old
> people its irresponsible.  I can't honestly look my
> kids in the eye and tell them that SS is a good deal
> for them.  The handwriting is on the wall.  This is
> not a Republican or a Democrat problem, this is simple
> demographics.  Go to the latest McKinsey newsletter
> and you'll see China is facing the same problem.  Its
> simple math!
>
> Brad
>