The Rhineland model may be seen as a regulated market economy with a comprehensive system of social security.

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The mistake here was simple: President Bush never put forward a single, comprehensive plan to transform Social Security from a generational-conflict-fostering economic drain to a capital-generating, wealth-creating, economic-illiteracy-reducing, better-benefits-for-all mechanism.

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Obama and Democrats say they want to protect Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, and that comprehensive deficit reduction must include increased taxes on wealthy Americans to prevent the burden of austerity steps from shifting too much to the middle class, the elderly and other vulnerable demographics.

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Indeed, in 2005, Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) and then Senator John Sununu (R-NH) introduced comprehensive legislation providing for just such a personal accounts plan, officially scored by the Chief Actuary of Social Security.

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