The loss of power...

...is simply unbearable to those who wield it. This reasoning is so shoddy (e.g. private accounts are not necessarily tied to stocks or any other paper asset) that there can be no other explanation other than a defacto leader of a historically government-enlargin party lashing out at the loss of power this measure would bring.

President Barack Obama said Republican proposals to have people invest Social Security benefits in private accounts would increase the U.S. budget deficit and put retirement money at risk to “the whims of Wall Street traders.”

In his weekly address on the radio and Internet, Obama marked the 75th anniversary of President Franklin Roosevelt’s signing of the Social Security Act, and said he would fight if Republicans try to convert the entitlement program to private investment accounts.

“I’d have thought, after being reminded how quickly the stock market can tumble, after seeing the wealth people worked a lifetime to earn wiped out in a matter of days, that no one would want to place bets with Social Security on Wall Street -- that everyone would understand why we need to be prudent about investing the retirement money of tens of millions of Americans,” he said.