Sunday, March 06, 2005

The Answer is Blowin' in the Windfalls

The folks at FactCheck.org and the Campaign for America's future are fussing over facts about Social Security reform and the potential windfall to the securities industry.

The Campaign opposes private Social Security accounts.

On Friday, FactCheck.org claimed the Campaign was over estimating the amount of money Wall Street would make from privatizing a part of Social Security. FactCheck.org said at the time Wall Street would likely make only 16 cents for every $10,000 it managed in private accounts.

The Campaign for America's Future says FactCheck.org failed to check their math. They claim FactCheck created a hypothetical scenario to support their claims. They've put out a release saying FactCheck's points were flawed and wants the statement pulled from FactCheck's website.

FactCheck fired back with yet another post on their site defending their original statement. They say the Campaign failed to dispute their central argument -- that Wall Street would only get 16-cents for every $10,000 managed.

FactCheck based their math on a model where private Social Security accounts would resemble the Thrift Savings Plan -- the retirement fund for military and federal employees. The Campaign argues that private Social Security accounts wouldn't follow that model closely enough to result in the numbers FactCheck came up with.

Stay tuned.

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