Michael Hiltzik: Mike Pence, would-be president, has a plan to kill Social Security. It will cost you

Former Vice President Mike Pence dipped his toes into the presidential campaign waters on Feb. 2 with a proposal that would mean the death of Social Security.

Pence made his remarks on stage during a conference of the National Assn. of Wholesaler-Distributors in Washington. The event wasn't open to the public, but a video and transcript was posted by American Bridge, which is affiliated with the Democratic Party.

That's when Pence unearthed the old Republican idea of privatizing Social Security wholly or partially.

"Give younger Americans the ability to take a portion of their Social Security withholdings and put that into a private savings account," he proposed. "A very simple fund that could generate 2% would give the average American twice what they're going to get back on their Social Security today."

Pence didn't say outright that he advocates killing Social Security. Instead, he took the course I reported on just last week. That's the Republican and conservative habit of employing plausible-sounding jargon and economists' gibberish to conceal their intention to hobble the program.

But make no mistake: Diverting any significant portion of Social Security taxes into private accounts would make the program unworkable, funnel