By Ed Morrissey

HOT AIR – Anyone who follows politics will recall the hue and cry that greeted President Bush’s 2005 proposal to allow workers to save a portion of their Social Security payroll taxes in personal accounts. But even many who follow politics today could be forgiven for failing to realize that the incoming Barack Obama administration is, in its stimulus proposal, suggesting something far more radical for Social Security.

For those who don’t recall the specifics of the 2005 debate, let’s refresh the memory. Workers could have saved four percent of their wages, up to a cap of $1000 (rising each year), in Social Security personal accounts. The money would have remained within the broader Social Security system and the accounts administered by the federal government. The money could only be used to fund future retirement benefits, in effect replacing part of an unfunded benefit promise with a funded reality.

Because participation was to be phased in, the amounts of money proposed in 2005 appear modest by the standards of the current economic debate: $30 billion in 2009, $61 B in 2010, and $95 B in 2011. None of this money could have been spent, or diverted to purposes unrelated to funding Social Security benefits.

(Excerpt) Read Entire Article at Hot Air