More On Social Security
"As reported in last month's Lowdown, step one is to portray Social Security as fatally flawed. The promised benefits are a 'hoax,' the taxes paid into the trust fund are 'wasted' rather than invested for maximum return, and 'the so-called reserve fund ... is no reserve at all.'
Interestingly, these are quotes not from today's alarmist Bushites but from the lips of Alf Landon and the pages of his party's platform when he was the Republican candidate for president way back in 1936! Note that the first Social Security check was not mailed until 1937, so the ideologues and big money interests were predicting doom and gloom and trying to undermine the program even before it started.
Indeed, dismantling Social Security has been a central tenet of the right wing for nearly 70 years, and it's been an increasingly serious goal of GOP presidential politics since the hardcore right made its grab for the reins of the party's national leadership with Barry Goldwater's 1964 run. Nothing that Bush is saying today is new. Just as George is now doing, Goldwater painted a picture of a collapsing system 40 years ago, declaring that 'it is not actuarially sound' and contending that he merely wanted 'to make Social Security solvent, to improve it.' Likewise, Ronnie Reagan called for the same sort of privatization approach now touted by Bush. 'Can't we introduce voluntary features that would permit a citizen to do better on his own?' the Gipper asked.
While politicians from Goldwater to George have portrayed their assault on the program in terms of 'saving' it with a curative dose of privatization, it's really the very existence of Social Security that sticks in their craw. (In '64, in a moment of candor about his real intentions, Goldwater said, 'Perhaps Social Security should be abolished.') Behind this campaign is the right wing's anti-government dogma, which has trumped the obvious need to guarantee people a basic level of retirement security."
AlterNet: Neutering Social Security
Interestingly, these are quotes not from today's alarmist Bushites but from the lips of Alf Landon and the pages of his party's platform when he was the Republican candidate for president way back in 1936! Note that the first Social Security check was not mailed until 1937, so the ideologues and big money interests were predicting doom and gloom and trying to undermine the program even before it started.
Indeed, dismantling Social Security has been a central tenet of the right wing for nearly 70 years, and it's been an increasingly serious goal of GOP presidential politics since the hardcore right made its grab for the reins of the party's national leadership with Barry Goldwater's 1964 run. Nothing that Bush is saying today is new. Just as George is now doing, Goldwater painted a picture of a collapsing system 40 years ago, declaring that 'it is not actuarially sound' and contending that he merely wanted 'to make Social Security solvent, to improve it.' Likewise, Ronnie Reagan called for the same sort of privatization approach now touted by Bush. 'Can't we introduce voluntary features that would permit a citizen to do better on his own?' the Gipper asked.
While politicians from Goldwater to George have portrayed their assault on the program in terms of 'saving' it with a curative dose of privatization, it's really the very existence of Social Security that sticks in their craw. (In '64, in a moment of candor about his real intentions, Goldwater said, 'Perhaps Social Security should be abolished.') Behind this campaign is the right wing's anti-government dogma, which has trumped the obvious need to guarantee people a basic level of retirement security."
AlterNet: Neutering Social Security
posted by NBT at 07:21
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