Bush wanted to use SS to pump large amounts of cash into the stock markets, handled by amateur investors (the public) so that the economy would look good while he was in office. You know, like Reagan (when he got banks to open credit purse-strings for the masses). With Reagan, there was hell to pay later, and the fallout is STILL occurring. If Bush ever gets his way with SS, the results are likely to be FAR worse. Like it or not, SS & Medicare are still the ONLY real net under the lower classes; Bush's actions would GUT that, and we'd see far more handicapped and seriously ill people on the street, starving and dying. Then we'd need some OTHER system, more poorly devised in a time of extremes.