Doesn't Kolbe-Stenholm cut benefits 45%?

["Steven H. Johnson" <info@sscommonsense.org>]

A few months back, I looked rather closely at the Kolbe-Stenholm
proposal.  I spoke with one of the actuaries at Social Security
who'd worked on pricing out the proposal.  What I learned was
quite interesting.

At the end of the 75 year forecasting period, the Kolbe-Stenholm
plan was projected to cut benefits by 45%.  The Kolbe-Stenholm
strategy slashed total program cost from roughly 19 percent of 
taxable payroll to about 10.5 percent of taxable payroll.  These
aren't my numbers.  These are the numbers furnished me by one of the 
actuaries who priced out the Kolbe-Stenholm plan.

Setting aside two percent of taxable payroll in a Thrift Savings
Plan will not, under any reasonable set of return assumptions,
make up more than half the loss.

Steve Johnson
Common Sense on Social Security
http://www.sscommonsense.org