So yesterday, President Bush officially started his second term, marking 4 more years of heavenly times or 4 more years of hell, whichever way you want to look at it. It is around this time when presidents in their second go around begin to think about their legacy. For this one, it looks like he wants to change Social Security as we know it by creating private accounts. What a horrible idea!

4 years ago, when Bush rammed through his tax cuts, he pushed it through with the line that he trusts us to spend the money wisely instead of the government. While we didn't spend much of it at the stores, like he wanted us to, we saved it in a savings account or paid down some debt and were grateful for the help. Today, he uses essentially the same line to fix Social Security in that if we invested our money ourselves, we may be able to get a greater return on our investments. There would be restrictions, or as the President awkwardly put it, we couldn't bet it on the lottery or "dice games."

One little problem. Give us money to spend? No problem. Give us money to invest? Ha, we're idiots when it comes to that. If the stock market was so risk-free, why isn't everyone doing it?

Simply put, private accounts won't save Social Security from the crisis President Bush insists it is in. In fact, Social Security is solvent until 2042, at least. So if Bush wants to do something, he'll do the unpopular thing and cut benefits by slowing their rate of growth while lifting the cap on payroll taxes that go to Social Security. What does he have to lose? After all, he's a lame duck.