A Reminder To Send Money To Obama

America’s Worst Columnist With the Possible Exception of Maureen Dowd endorses Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary. We already knew she was the least progressive major candidate, but…[via MY]

Bonus Krauthammer hackery:

And look what Clinton unveiled this week: a modestly government-subsidized, personal retirement account. True, it is yet another big-government middle-class entitlement. Yes, she ignores the looming Social Security crisis. On the other hand, establishing a universal, portable, personal retirement account (though without the government subsidy) is something conservatives have long and devoutly sought. It establishes a parallel to the Social Security system — the perfect vehicle for a future conservative administration to use for shifting from the current, unsustainable government-controlled program to a privatized system such as the one in Chile.

The first problem here, of course, is that there is no Social Security “crisis” and the program is perfectly sustainable. But even more remarkable is citing the Chilean system as a model:

For all the program’s success in economic terms, the government continues to direct billions of dollars to a safety net for those whose contributions were not large enough to ensure even a minimum pension approaching $140 a month. Many others – because they earned much of their income in the underground economy, are self-employed, or work only seasonally – remain outside the system altogether. Combined, those groups constitute roughly half the Chilean labor force. Only half of workers are captured by the system.

Even many middle-class workers who contributed regularly are finding that their private accounts – burdened with hidden fees that may have soaked up as much as a third of their original investment – are failing to deliver as much in benefits as they would have received if they had stayed in the old system.

Dagoberto Sáez, for example, is a 66-year-old laboratory technician here who plans, because of a recent heart attack, to retire in March. He earns just under $950 a month; his pension fund has told him that his nearly 24 years of contributions will finance a 20-year annuity paying only $315 a month.

“Colleagues and friends with the same pay grade who stayed in the old system, people who work right alongside me,” he said, “are retiring with pensions of almost $700 a month – good until they die. I have a salary that allows me to live with dignity, and all of a sudden I am going to be plunged into poverty, all because I made the mistake of believing the promises they made to us back in 1981.”

Now that, at least if you’re marginally more civilized than Krauthammer, is unsustainable.