Social Security has been one of the most successful programs in history. Before Social Security, tens of millions of working Americans faced poverty in their senior years. This will happen again if President Bush's privatization scheme destroys Social Security.

We in the Green Party favor measures to prevent future shortfalls, but we strongly oppose the Bush plan. Some steps that Greens favor could easily reverse a possible future shortfall:

1. Lifting the current cap on Social Security, which right now only taxes the first $90,000 of wages. 2. Means testing, according to which those who have a retirement income above a certain level would not be eligible for Social Security. (Lowering payments to the rich is consistent with Social Security's role as insurance for the elderly and other people in need.)

In promoting his privatization plan, President Bush is deceiving the American people about Social Security, just as his administration deceived the American people with allegations about Iraqi WMDs, Saddam Hussein's collusion with al-Qaeda, nuclear weapons materials and an "imminent threat" to the United States in order to justify invading Iraq.

The Bush plan is a multi-billion-dollar gift to his financial corporation supporters. It doesn't transfer "ownership" from the U.S. government to private citizens, but to Wall Street--to whichever brokerage the citizen is investing through, with all the related fees and risks.

The goal of privatization is not to fix Social Security but to destroy it. Dismantling Social Security has been a Republican dream for six decades. Former House leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) recently endorsed entirely ending the program. Republican activists at a Pennsylvania public hearing shouted "Hey! Hey! Ho! Ho! Social Security has got to go!" Think tanks with clout in the White House, like the Heritage Foundation and Cato Institute, have published papers on why and how Social Security should be abolished, recommending privatization to achieve this goal.

While Democrats like Joe Lieberman can sound more and more like Republicans agreeing with Bush's "privatization schemes," the Green Party will still stand for an insurance plan like Social Security that favors the little guy, not Wall Street!

Tim McKee
Manchester