Maybe he realized early on what a great "business opportunity" lay in
other people's retirement savings. Or that massive influxes of capital were needed to finance the leveraging frenzy ratcheting up on Wall Street. Well, in contradiction to his quoted statement from 8 years ago, it's pretty clear that the public was never as enthusiastic about his plan as the investment community was. It's a good thing too. Can you imagine what would be the reaction today if people had taken advantage of his plan and put part of their Social Security taxes into the Market?

But the investment community was not to be denied, the funding eventually came from crashing real estate values and uninsured savings plans, so the middle and upper classes, not just the poor, got their opportunity to finance their share of the Bush prosperity. I don't think we'll hear much more about privatization of Social Security, although I must concede that IRAs and 401Ks are really just a variation on this same melody: Those who can afford to make part of their income temporarily inaccessible get a nice little tax subsidy (ahemm, excuse me, tax SHELTER) from the government. And if it's FDIC protected, the government will insure it at public expense, too.

Well, I must concede, not all of these middle-class giveaways came from Mr Bush, and I must confess I have taken advantage of them myself whenever I can. After all, if the government is giving money away, why should I say no? It would be positively un-American.