Aren't You Glad They Didn't Privatize Social Security?

As I survey the smoking wreckage of the brokerage account holding what I once thought of as my "savings", which is currently down over 40% (I only beat the market in failure), I recall President Bush's initiative to privatize Social Security. It was a major part of the Bush agenda just after he declared himself mandated to spend "political capital" he'd earned via his devastating 50.7% landslide in the 2004 election.

If the initiative hadn't failed, and Social Security moneys were rising and falling with the stock market, I'd imagine that a whole lot of retirees might be eating cat food right about now.

Of course, the plan was never about enlightened management of public funds. It was a tactic aimed at giving more voters a personal stake in the stock market, hopefully propelling them into a more pro-business, pro-Republican perspective.