At this time in USAmerica's history the proposal that follows is probably pure fantasy but, hey, in order to have the results you have never had, you must do what you have never done! ;)

The Bush adminstration and the Republican-majority House and Senate have begun to put their Social Security reform plans on the legislative front burner. The proposed reform in Social Security will involve personal accounts placed with mutual fund managers on contract with Social Security. In its present form these personal accounts represent a windfall for Wall Street.

It is doubtful that the Republicans have any room for Labor in the discussion of Social Security reform, but just in case there is then Labor would have a perfect opporunity to pitch proposals that many Main Street oriented Republicans would find attractive. First of all direct investment in USAmerica's SMEs is completely absent in the Bush reform proposal. Main Street Republicans and Labor share an interest in seeing that SMEs benefit from the creation of capital pools dedicated to financing SMEs. Labor is beginning to allocate billions of the Taft-Hartley funds under its management toward regionally-based investment in SMEs. Given the common interest that Labor and Main Street Republicans (and Main Street Democrats) have in the frontline enterprises of the American economy perhaps Labor and the Republicans could include Taft-Hartley Funds in the mix of options available to Social Security taxpayers.