July 30, 2004
THE REACTIONARY PARTY:
"We believe in the family value expressed in one of the oldest Commandments: "Honor thy father and thy mother." As President, I will not privatize Social Security. I will not cut benefits. And together, we will make sure that senior citizens never have to cut their pills in half because they can't afford life-saving medicine.
And that is the choice in this election."
This is the scariest aspect of the Kerry candidacy, that doesn't even pay lip service to the Third Way. As his life seems stuck in the 60s, so too does his vision of welfare. At least Bill Clinton ran as a New Democrat even if he didn't generally govern as one--and his own rhetoric made it impossible for him to weasel out of Welfare Reform. Mr. Kerry is a far more retrograde, almost Johnsonesque, figure.
George W. Bush should take privatization--which is very popular with the American people--and ram it down the Senator's throat.
The article about Bush promoting his 2nd term (under the Kerry speech post) implies Bush will talk about/bring up changes to social security. Let's hope so - as OJ notes it may hurt a bit with senior voters but should help out with the rest of the electorate. And Hermain Cain should help Bush sell it to African Americans.
Posted by: AWW at July 30, 2004 10:28 AMIn 2002, Liddy Dole came out boldly for SS reform. During a debate with Bowles, she held up a plain white sheet of paper, and said "this is my opponent's plan on Social Security". Pat Toomey did the same running for re-election in NE PA. Both won. The Democrats have no idea how vulnerable they are on this issue, if the GOP would simply grab that rail and get energized by the 600 volts.
Posted by: jim hamlen at July 30, 2004 12:12 PMIs any one commandment older than another? I thought they all were issued at the same time.
Posted by: G. Richardson at July 30, 2004 12:57 PMJohn Kerry thinks the Bible mandates the current SS system? Tell me again who is the religious fanatic in the race?
Posted by: brian at July 30, 2004 1:28 PMG.: Good point, though there are different versions of the commandments, so it could be they aren't all the same age.
Posted by: PapayaSF at July 30, 2004 4:02 PMIs privatization really that popular with the American people? I am not sure that it is.
Posted by: Vince at July 30, 2004 4:36 PMVince it polls well over 50%--at worst it's not a negative.
Posted by: oj at July 30, 2004 4:57 PMVince,
The devil is in the details, but NOBODY I know has a great deal of confidence in SS, and nobody thinks that SS alone will keep them living comfortably. They also know that they have no legal "ownership" in getting a check from the gov't once a month.
They *also* know that their IRAs and 401K's are owned by them, and they have the ownership of them. And they will not dependent on anybody in the gov't to take a monthly withdrawal out of the account. And, of course, they know that when they die, the left-over money in the IRA/401k can be left to their spouse, children, or whomever they pick.
Posted by: ray at July 30, 2004 5:00 PM>John Kerry thinks the Bible mandates the
>current SS system? Tell me again who is the
>religious fanatic in the race?
"Men of Sin" will quote any cosmic authority -- Bible, Koran, Darwin, Freud, Nature, you name it -- to justify by "Divine Right" whatever they were going to do anyway.
Posted by: Ken at July 30, 2004 6:35 PM