New Economic Package and the Future

The new economic package needs to address the MASSES and not the few. The few can be addressed at a later date.
Also any package must include a fix for Social Security, Energy Independence Program, Infrastructure Improvements, Reducing the National Debt Over Time, and Financial Market Reform.
None of this is earth shattering news BUT unless a package includes all of these areas the house of cards will fall.
Below is a Social Security Plan I suggested in 2005 and believe it is still relevant and worth looking at.
October 12, 2005

Mr. President:

I believe that the Social Security systems needs to addressed and I also believe that the plan submitted by you will not pass the Congress, and that is not acceptable.
I think with the events of the past months from Iraq to Katrina, Mr. President you need to start leaving a positive legacy for your Presidency, and solving Social Security would be a great start.
You came into office as a Compassionate Conservative, and solving the Social Security issue with more Compassion than Conservatism would be a great service to the American people even though the plan I am suggesting below might make the “hair on the back of your neck stand up”, it is the right thing to do.Mr. President my plan maybe the beginning of what is finally passed by Congress and signed by you and obviously needs to be more than a page long but as they say “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”.
So here is my outlined alternative to the situation, and also state that there is a private account system that already exists, in my opinion, and that is the 401K.
1) Raise the limit of income for the FICA tax to $250,000 immediately and then over five years to $750,000. Raise the total tax paid by company and employee by a total one-quarter percent every five years through 2025. Higher or longer of computer simulations determine that is needed
2) Eliminate payments to all people who an estate of at least five million dollars or an annual income in excess of $50,000 until the age of eighty.
3) After age seventy there would be no taxes paid on any withdrawals from a 401K, IRA, or other savings fund if the total worth of the estate is less than five million dollars.
4) Insure that all employers (more than three employees) have a 401K or similar plan established for all employees. And insure that all workers contribute a minimum of three percent into the plan.
5) All companies with more than ten employees must contribute a minimum of one and one half percent of each employees gross earning to the plan annually. All employees over the age of thirty must join a plan at the minimum level that would equal the company contribution.
6) Anyone earning less than $25,000 (unless signed as a second income) must choose a fixed income option for their 401K.
7) Anyone whose final income is under $30,000 annually at age 65 would not pay any taxes on their 401K.
8) Continually increase the age for maximum payments of Social Security based upon the life expectancy tables established by the US government. The age would be ten years below the life expectancy table indications and would different for both men and women. This provision would be effective in the year 2010. The dates would not go below the present provisions.
In my opinion these steps when put through the appropriate computer programs would show how much a person who is making the present minimum wage and assuming no wage increases, and a three percent interest level would have available at age 70 as a nest egg in addition to Social Security.
I also believe the increases in income to the fund and the reduction in payments would allow the fund to be solvent well beyond the dates now projected.
Look forward to hearing from you concerning my plan and the opportunity to discuss it with you further.

Bruce Rubin
1201 Oak Circle
Lansdale, PA 19446-6074
215-699-8422