Paul Ryan's Road Map Hits Road Block in Chicago.

Paul Ryan greeted by protesters over privatizing Social Security? Surprised? Me too, since you never see stories like this anywhere. Tea party protesters joined in.

On Sept 1, 2010,150 IL seniors gathered outside a campaign luncheon at the
Four Seasons Hotel in Chicago to protest Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI)'s
'roadmap' budget plan to privatize Social Security and dismantle Medicare.

Loved this post at the Huffington Post and the idea that if politicians want to privatize Social Security and Medicare, they should give up their Cadillac benefits and "enjoy" their brilliantly conceived privatized plan like every other American. It's a challenge every interviewer should pose to these free market failures. Why shouldn't elected officials expect to make a similar sacrifice to balance the budget.

Events of the last week have made the Deficit Commission an embarrassment. Co-Chair Alan Simpson is a one-man disaster movie, compulsively offending one key voting bloc after another. Commission member Paul Ryan faced an angry crowd over his anti-Social Security stance, while another Commissioner locked experienced workers out of a nuclear facility rather than provide retirement benefits. That's right: He's cutting retirement benefits. But if the political blowback is obvious, here's what isn't:

The Commissioners who are determined to cut your Social Security benefits are going to enjoy their own retirements in comfort. Their own pension plans insulate them from the fears that many other Americans face.

If you don't know much about the topic and are protected from the problem, what
makes you credible? Their pre-established prejudices makes the situation even
worse, and their own situations underscore the irony of their self-professed
willingness to make "brave choices" - choices whose consequences will mean little or nothing to them.

Consider Commissioner Alice Rivlin. Rivlin co-authored a paper that called for raising the retirement age and other benefit cuts, will presumably enjoy a comfortable retirement supported by multiple public pensions. Says Rivlin: ""We can't get out of this problem without doing both spending cuts, especially slowing the growth of entitlement, and tax increases."

Experts on Social Security finance (including the long-time Chief Actuary for the program) flatly disagree with Rivlin, pointing out that an adjustment to the payroll tax cap would unquestionably be enough to get the job done. They have the numbers to prove it.

Republican Rep. Paul Ryan, an aggressive advocate of Social Security cuts and privatization, will also enjoy his sunset years in comfort, thanks to a publicly-funded pension from his tenure as a Congressman. (He'll presumably earn even more as a result of his employment as an aide to two United States Senators.)

Rep. Jeb Hensaerling has served as both a Representative and as an aide to Sen. Phil Gramm, so he should be safe from financial insecurity in his old age too . The average annual pension payments for former members of Congress ranged from $41,000 to $55,000 in 2002, considerably more than the average $13,836 that Social Security recipients received in 2009.

Yet neither Ryan nor Hensaerling have proposed cutting Congressional retirement benefits - nor should they. Sound pension plans like theirs were once available to most working Americans, and more effort should be made to restore them.

Tom Coburn, another would-be Social Security cutter, will receive a Congressional and Senatorial pension too.

If these Deficit Commission members want their recommendations to have any credibility, they should pledge to live on the same Social Security benefits that they would impose for other Americans. Better yet, they should dedicate themselves to helping provide every American with the kind of retirement security they enjoy.