Oops

I'm not sure if the teleprompter was on the fritz, or whether there was an honest mistake in the crafting of the State of the Union, but it seems that our "esteemed" President forgot to mention the part about the fabulous new individual Social Security savings accounts where each of us give the money we earned from the account back to the government....I'm sure it was just an oversight.

"You'll be able to pass along the money that accumulates in your personal account, if you wish, to your children . . . or grandchildren," Bush said last night. "And best of all, the money in the account is yours, and the government can never take it away."

Um, no. Not really. Not even close. The accounts would work more like a loan from the government, to be paid back upon retirement at an inflation-adjusted 3 percent interest rate -- the interest the money would have earned if it had been invested in Treasury bonds, said Peter R. Orszag, a Social Security analyst at the Brookings Institution and a former Clinton White House economist.

Let's look at it this way (thank you, Jonathan Weisman for doing the math): If a worker sets aside $1,000 a year for 40 years, and earns 4 percent annually on investments, the account would grow to $99,800 in today's dollars, but the government would keep $78,700 -- or about 80 percent of the account. The remainder, $21,100, would be the worker's.

So, I can't touch my money until I retire, the government still gets to pick where I invest my money, and then they keep 80% of it...hmm...It sounds to me like those are almost SOCIALIST tax rates...so, you conservatives who think the government shouldn't be touching your money should think twice before jumping aboard the privatization train.

I won't even go into how relieved I feel that Shrub is planning on supporting a constitutional amendment to "protect the institution of marriage." I mean, let the liberty roll to the farthest reaches of the earth - Iraq, Iran, North Korea...but not here. No, not here.

Not if we don't like you.