The notion of letting people speculate with their Social Security investment is flawed on a very basic level. Suppose Burt and Martha put their entire fund into a risky high-reward fund that then goes belly up. Do you really think Burt is going to say "well, such is life, Martha. It's dogfood and a bed in the back of the Buick for us"? Hell, no. Burt and Martha are going to become wards of the State anyway, but this time they'll be living on the rest of our dollars.

Republicans are all for individual initiative and personal responsibility until it comes to themselves. Then its "well, sure I've got my pension, but I'm entitled to my Medicare benefit on top of that. I just want what's coming to me." One of the biggest problems for these people in Health Care reform is the dropping of secondary Medicare programs run at huge profits by the big insurance companies. They want all the basic benefits, plus all the incidentals, and the government needs to pay for it, by God.

I love the aspect of the proposed Republican tax reform that does away with the homeowners' tax benefit for mortgage interest. I can't wait to see the reaction when that one gets trotted out, along with continued tax cuts for the wealthy.