The President mentioned that the workers would get up to 4% of the SSA withholding to invest in private accounts. They currently contribute 7.5%, so GWB is proposing 4/7.5 or 53.3% of their withholding to invest. See the numbers below to see where that fits in the scheme of things.

I heard somewhere that some critics were saying this will reduce SSA benfits by 40%. By my calulations, that should only reduce bennies by 26.7%, since the employers contribution and 47% of the employees contribution are still going to the old SSA funds.