Bush’s Social Security Plan Is a Fairy Tale

Re “White House Says Social Security Fix Means Borrowing,” Dec. 7: Evidently, President Bush lacks any respect for the dollar. His solution is to borrow his way out of each and every problem, rather than the pay-as-you-go plan. He is afraid to raise taxes, that dirty little word, which cost his father the election when we read his lips.

Now we are reaping the benefits of joining the president in his never-never land scenario of economics according to Bush. Because this is not reality-based, the proposition is stripping away the basic soundness of the monetary system.

And just whom do Americans think we are borrowing from? Some benign Santa Claus? No, we are in debt up to our chins with Europe and China. Somehow, the destabilization of the U.S. dollar doesn’t seem like the best plan of action. But because our man in the White House has lived off “borrowed” funds his entire adult life and walked away from more than one failed deal that hurt many investors, this appears to be business as usual for a man who has never lived in the real world.

Betty Seidmon

Los Angeles

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Re “Bush Rejects Tax Hike for Social Security,” Dec. 10: I am deeply troubled by the Bush administration’s meddling with Social Security. Informed commentators have repeatedly stated that Social Security is fundamentally sound. I believe that the true motive behind the drive to privatize it has more to do with right-wing Republican attempts to undermine the progressive social legislation enacted over the last 60 years by the Democratic and Republican parties alike. I am 57 and was for many years a Republican, but no longer. I am saddened because it seems today we are turning our backs on the segment of our population that, through no fault of its own, can’t quite make it, and this is not right. I believe that we as a society have an obligation to help these individuals and it is through our government that this is accomplished.

John Trask

Thousand Oaks