385
Ted Cruz Admits Trump Accounts Are Designed to Privatize Social Security Over Time | Common Dreams
(www.commondreams.org)
this post was submitted on 08 May 2026
385 points (99.5% liked)
politics
29705 readers
2542 users here now
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
401K's are already an artificial siphoning of worker capital into the rich people's stock market game. This is just par for the course.
Yeah and in Holland they've just killed the old reasonable pension system and replaced it with a similar 401(K) type thing 😢
This has been the case in much of the US for over a decade now. Pensions are essentially a thing of the past here (unless you have a very strong union, inshallah)
Really? Do you have a link on that, I missed it, just found out reuters has let me back in without a paywall or I would maybe know already
I doubt it would be in the world news. But they basically made it into a system where everyone has like a private investment package as a pension.
The government has a lot of info on it but it's all in Dutch.
The problem is the ruling parties of the last 30 years are very neoliberal and they adore America. So it's been nothing but cut social welfare, privatisation and now this.
Are you Dutch? Do you have an idea what the sentiment over there is? The US is a lost cause at this point, but I was hoping other places would learn from our idiocy.
Yes I am but luckily I don't live there anymore. The country has been very neoliberal, idealising America for the last 30 years, led by the VVD party. Lately the extreme-right fascists have had a much larger influence (PVV party and also FVD and JA21). They still do. In 2023 they gained more than 30% of votes. The resulting coalition screwed up very badly by constantly screwing each other over for political gain, so the government collapsed after only a year. The one that came after is the same old shit again.
Why does Europe keep americanizing?
401k, tipping schemes, and I swear these aren't the only things I've heard.
Stop trying to be like the US! The US is not better! That should be obvious at this point.
Yes the problem is that many other things are also blowing over. Like all the anti-trans and anti-migrant rhetoric. This is driving the rise of extreme-right politics.
It is so easy to use trans as a scapegoat, because it is so few of them and majority of people don't know any, so they are more willing to accept made up facts.
The small number of them also means they don't have any political pressure.
Gays for example are estimated to be almost 20% of the population, so consequences of attacking them can be significant.
Yes it bothers me a lot about the trans hate in particular because I am closely associated with the LGBT community and it hurts me seeing this happen to my friends. Some of my ex-friends in Holland are now rabid about all the usual tropes, like athletes, toilets etc. All things that aren't actually true (HRT actually diminishes muscle power a lot and there are almost no trans athletes let alone successful ones, and people don't go through a whole transition so they can walk into the women's restroom, that whole premise is completely ridiculous). I've tried to educate them but the propaganda is constantly flowing in on social media.
Sometimes I wonder if these guys like being angry. Because they seem to be looking for stuff to be angry about all the time.
They won't have to look for it, they're being manipulated by social media algorithms.
Doesn't excuse their hate, but it makes more sense when you think of them like old men with dementia who can't keep their racism to themselves because they think this is still 1950...
Just think what Bush's privatization was. They tried to borrow, tens of trillions, to pump into a stock market they knew was on the brink of collapse, and force people to use money managers that get paid regardless of their clients' fortunes.
Gains would only be recognized for 8%, the rest kicked back in the pot, losses would be 100%. It was such a shit system, on top of trying to foist all of this have to invest money into a market to allow the rich to sell off on a high note and leave workers holding the bag, to die in the street with stolen retirement.
What was this called?
Edit: found it in here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_debate_in_the_United_States
No mention of the 8% gains cap though which would really be the infuriating part
I went to a local democratic rally of sorts where they went over the social security reform in detail, what was it, 2008 I think, right before the market was going to crash.
The most infuriating part of it is they were trying to force people to dump their retirement accounts in a failing market to allow stockholders to sell out their shares on a high note, and wipe out a good share of all retirement income, leaving retirees destitute.
They also had to pay a money manager, like a mutual fund kind of deal if memory serves. If it passed which it didn't obviously, it really sank Bush's popularity.
Thanks for that, very interesting.
What is baffling to me is they apparently were pitching it as a way of making social security solvent. If people can divert their SS tax dollars to private accounts, it makes the shortfall even worse. But sometimes that is their objective, I know.
The rich have been obsessed with killing the new deal from the start. Social Security is their prime target, they've been trying to kill it for 5 decades now.
Everything they say is opposite land as with everything else. They borrowed tens of trillions of dollars to subsidize business multiple times, but are trying not to borrow the surplus social security payments they took and spent elsewhere our retirees entire lives.
They borrowed that money, with the promise of paying it back when it was needed, and are now trying to default on America.