[AKA_Monet]

What I am unclear on is how Clinton left the Social Security with a surplus in 2000, and Bush has a second term with a billion dollar debt that is worse than Reagan's...

Do I trust the government to invest my money wisely when a few of these folks in business had "cooked books"?

Do I want the option of taking my own money, and NOT investing it into the government and invest it on my own with a tax sheltered, tax defered or Roth IRA account--then hope the market doesn't crash?

Because Wall Street does get touchy during times of war... That's historical... Someday's there are rebounds, but if we lose big time in something for whatever reason in Iraq, prices drop... Period...

And if the investments are "bonds", then what kind of bonds--war bonds? For a war I do not support?

Something just sounds too funky to me... Something has run amuck... And it sounds like somebody's trying to force "their" belief systems on me as if I am a fool with her money...

Hayle no, I don't think so...

Moreover, given that many of us up in heerah are wage earners and have minimal capital, then we are at the mercy of what the President says... And I personally don't care who is on his business tech stock analysts from whatever brokerage house (spelled Fox Business Stoxs with Neil Cavuto and Arthur Anderson)...

I'm sorry, I'm a Suze Orman fan... I have shared banking with Credit Unions only... And I invest with Fidelity, Vangard, Phoenix Home Life, AllianceBernstein (which did really bad during the dot.bomb) and TIAA-CREF... And I think TD Waterhouse has some good ideas of what to do...