TABLE OF VARIOUS SOCIAL SECURITY PLANS

	Balancer	Ultimate Balancer and Tinkerer	Small Private Accounts with Progressive Indexing	President Bush’s Plan	Add-On	Ultimate Private Accounts	Miscellaneous	Bob Ball
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Plan authors	Peter Diamon, Peter przag	Robert M. Ball	Robert Pozen	President Bush	Edward M. Gramlich	Peter J. Ferrara	Phillip Longman, Matt Miller	Bob Ball
Plan supporters		David R. Obey (D-WI)			Gene B. Sperling, Robt E Clay Shaw (Clinton camp)	Paul Ryan (R-WI); Sen. John Sununu (R NH)		Bob Ball
Solvency date	Forever? (birth rate problems?)	2078	Forever	Unknown	Unknown	Forever	Forever?	Forever?
Govt borrowing?	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No?	Minimal
Private accounts?	No	No	Yes (2 points)	Yes (4 points)	Yes (1.6 points)	6.4 points	N/A	No
Raise taxes?	Raise cap (87% of 105000); 3% tax on high earnings; raise general payroll tax; tax new state, local, govt emps	Raise cap (90% of 145000); tax new state and local govt emps[1]	No	Maybe	1.6% for add-on private account	No	Reduce or eliminate taxes for people with children; possibly increase taxes for childless people (Longman)’ also, increase immigration; remember that eventually these added workers would be eligible for benefits	slightly
Reduce benefits	Yes, for workers 45 and younger, progressively	Yes, for affluent workers	No	Maybe (not for workers 55 or over); April 28, 2005, Bush proposes indexing benefits for low income workers to wage raises, and for high income workers to cost of living, making the program relatively more protective of low income people in retirement	Yes, for affluent workers, and raise retirement age	No	Maybe for the childless; index benefits to prices rather than wages (Miller); use means testing; ask for voluntary turnbacks from the wealthy; index according to life expectancy	Slightly for more affluent retirees
Goal	Fiscal stability and protection of low income workers	Maintain same structure, fiscal stability, protect low income workers	Reduce politicization	Increase self-sufficiency and ownership	Provide more self-sufficeincy without borrowing	Guarantee solvency and increase self-sufficiency	Address demographic and cultural problems	stability
Comments	Social justice	Social justice				Depends on economic growth		Let government invest in indexed stock funds to increase SS trust fund
								Source: LA Times, Joel Havemann

I’ve highlighted descriptions that may well be negative. Looking at this chart, I like the “ultimate tinkerer” with voluntary add-ons.

Source: Jonathan Weisman, “Competing Visions for Social Security,” The Washington Post, Feb. 24, 2005; Phillip Longman: The Empty Cradle;

Matt Miller: The Two Percent Solution.

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[1] Dennis Cauchon. “Can the rich, famous save Social Security: Solution works on paper but unlikely politically,” USA Today, June 1, 2005. Taxing all income would keep the system solvent, even if proportional benefits were paid to previous high earners as retirees.