Posts filed under “Social Security”
Replace the Sacred Cows
I’m fair weather fan of center-left economist/ domestic policy “wonks” Paul Krugman and Ezra Klein (who I suspect is his long lost son). They are both excellent at pointing out fundamental flaws in mainstream press’ coverage of economics and some of the more complicated domestic policy issues that arise. However, both have recently downplayed the [...]
Is “Ponzi Scheme” Really Not Hurting Perry?
I think that a lot of pundits aren’t taking this latest Gallup Poll seriously, which finds that 19% of Republicans and 32% of Independents are “less likely to support” Rick Perry after learning about his characterization of Social Security as a Ponzi scheme. They argue that since 19% of Republicans are “more likely to support” [...]
Mitt Romney: Protector of Social Security?
Mitt Romney has decided to make a ruckus out of Rick Perry’s insistence that Social Security is a “Ponzi Scheme”. In a flier disseminated to Republican voters in Florida, the Romney campaign asserts “Rick Perry: How can we trust anyone who wants to kill social security.” Here’s a snippet from the flier: It’s no secret [...]
Social Security, more numbers
In a previous post, I mentioned a CNN/ORC International poll that shows that the majority of Americans do not want the congressional “super committee” to make any changes to Social Security. This, I argued, puts Rick Perry and the rest of the GOP presidential field at odds with the American voter. More to the point [...]
Rick Perry, the anti-social security candidate
A major portion of the MSNBC/Politico Republican debate last night focused on where the Republican candidates stood on Social Security. The noise, of course, was started by Rick Perry who inaccurately called Social Security a Ponzi scheme in his book “Fed Up!”. When asked whether he stood by that statement during the debate, Perry amped [...]
Constituent Backlash
Town halls have just not been the same since the fiery Republican talking-points inspired health care rage summer of 2009. Instead of mostly calm civic discourse, they now are predominately characterized by wild screams, hoots, and hollers regardless of the elected officials’ political orientation. Lately, the tides been turning against Republican Congressmembers who, according to [...]
Is Dodd Immovable Or Is Reid Irresistible?
(1) That lovable cuddly senior Democrat, Senator Harry Reid, is still determined to give President Bush exactly what he wants in terms of telecom immunity. That is to say, our Harry thinks it is a wonderfully excellent idea for Congress to decree that the telecom companies which broke the law by agreeing to violate the [...]
Numbers Games
*I just realized that this image (from a prior Social Security post) is now totally obsolete. Shame, that. Beat the Press: The Wall Street Journal told readers today that it would take a 16 percent increase in Social Security taxes to make the program solvent over its 75-year planning period, according to the SS trustees. [...]
Not Over Yet
In 2005 I spent a lot of time, too much time actually, writing about Social Security and the President’s dishonest and misguided attempt to gut and privatize one of the most popular and successful programs in this country’s history. But George W. Bush had just won reelection and made “reform” his top priority, so I [...]
Remaking a Classic
The President’s Social Security roadshow continued this week with a pre-screened, Stepford audience, this time in Rochester, NY: Tickets allowing lucky audience members inside to hear the president at the school were colored red, blue or gold. [...] James Bock, 12, of Livonia, Livingston County, and five members of his family learned they had “golden” [...]