President Bush and his cronies in Congress in pursuit of a radical right-wing agenda that is anything but conservative are working a Social Security privatization scheme that would add trillions to the national debt, cut retirement benefits and raise taxes. It is all part and parcel of the president's plan to cut guaranteed Social Security benefits in favor of risky privatized accounts. 

Under the current system, the payroll tax collected from today's workers goes to benefits for people who are already retired. Bush seeks to divert some of that money into privatized accounts for workers who won't retire for years, which won't leave enough money to pay today's retirees.

 Even Joshua Bolton, one of Bush's top economic advisors, acknowledges that the shortfall, which could exceed $2 trillion over 10 years, would likely "require additional borrowing." 

This would significantly increase the national debt, which already stands at $7.5 trillion. (The Bush administration managed to add $413 billion last year alone). 

Meanwhile, Bush allies like Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) seeking to reduce the amount of borrowing to around $800 billion are backing significant Social Security benefit cuts and tax increases to off-set the cost of the administration's privatization scheme. (For all the details of the costs of Social Security privatization, read this paper.) 

IGNORING THE PRICE TAG : The administration and its congressional allies have come up with a clever way to avoid dealing with the financial consequences of Social Security privatization: Ignore them. Despite its potential $2 trillion price tag over 10 years and the president's insistence that it is a top priority top conservatives in Congress are considering keeping the costs of privatization "out of the five- and 10-year deficit projection that Congress looks at when it writes the annual budget."

NO PROBLEMS WITH SOCIAL SECURITY FOR THE NEXT 48 YEARS: There is a dirty little secret in Washington that the Bush administration doesn't want you to know about: Social Security is in pretty good shape. In fact, "Social Security is more financially sound today than it has been throughout most of its 69-year history." According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, without any changes at all, the Social Security program can pay all benefits through at least 2052.

TAX CUTS FOR TOP 1 PERCENT EXCEEDS COST OF FIXING SOCIAL SECURITY FOR 75 YEARS : During the next 75 years, the total shortfall for Social Security amounts to just 0.4 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Meanwhile, during that same period, President Bush's tax cuts just for the top one percent of earners (a group of people whose average income exceeds $1 million) will cost 0.6 percent of GDP. All of Bush's tax cuts will cost 2 percent of GDP during the next 75 years - or five times the projected 75-year Social Security shortfall. The current system could be made solvent for the indefinite future with adjustments in the tax code far more modest than those approved by Ronald Reagan in 1983 to protect Social Security.

PRIVATIZATION MEANS MORE MONEY WASTED ON ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS: Another little-known fact: Social Security is run very efficiently. In the current system, because the funds are managed together, less that 0.6 cents of every dollar paid out in Social Security benefits goes to pay administration costs. In England, which has adopted privatized accounts for its retirement system, 15 cents of every dollar paid out in benefits goes to administrative fees. Even by the Bush administration's own estimates, in a system of privatized accounts, 5 cents of every dollar would go to administrative costs, more than 8 times the amount spent on administrative costs today.