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Tuesday, December 15, 1998

Save Social Security!

by Cynthia Rymer Imes (aka. Empress Cindy [email protected])

Last Tuesday and Wednesday (December 8 & 9), President Clinton convened a bipartisan commission on Social Security. Did he invite David and Tom? Did he invite any of us? Of course not! He invited the wise and the wiser and the wisest, and they all had a bewildering variety of complex plans to "save" Social Security.

If we're not careful, Congress will pass a new law making Social Security and retirement saving even wiser and more complicated than it is now. So, I say now is the time to act to save Social Security!

And, of course, I have a proposal. I think the cure for Social Security is to leave it alone and allow us citizens to create our own retirement funds. Congress should lift all income restrictions on 401(k)s and IRAs and increase the limit on IRA deductions to at least $10,000/person. In return, those of us who can save enough to retire comfortably would forgo Social Security in favor of the tax advantages of our retirement accounts.

Just imagine -- if we have Roth IRAs, we won't have to pay any taxes on our retirement income. If we have regular IRAs and/or 40l(k)s, we won't have to pay taxes on the money we put into them. And by not taking Social Security, we'd leave plenty of money for the people who need it.

I shudder to think of what would happen if the federal government invested in the stock market. The wisdom! The insider trading! The consulting fees!

I say let us invest our own money and leave Social Security as a safety net for those people who need it.

I've already sent e-mails with my proposal to President Clinton, future Speaker of the House Bob Livingston, Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, my district Congressman, and my Senators.

Fools of the world unite! It's time for a Foolish grass roots movement to save Social Security!

[Click here for another Fool's view on social security.]

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