I wonder if these guys will be able to walk next week.
Dem Says He’s Open to Private Soc. Sec.
WASHINGTON (AP) – A second Senate Democrat said Friday he was open to President Bush’s idea of letting people divert some of their Social Security taxes to personal retirement accounts as Republican Party leaders tried to allay re-election fears among wavering GOP lawmakers.
Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., said any plan should be bipartisan, in part to give lawmakers from both parties political cover for supporting major changes to such the popular retirement program.
“I don’t believe that we should rule out the accounts,” Carper said Friday in an interview. “We have a very low savings rate in this country and clearly need to find ways to stimulate savings, and I think we should be open to a wide range of ideas and not dismiss them out of hand.”
Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., also has said he is open to discussing the private accounts, saying he wants to see details.
No Senate Democrat has signed onto a Social Security bill, and most say they are absolutely opposed to taking money from the traditional Social Security system to create these accounts. Several Democrats do like the idea of creating personal accounts on top of regular Social Security benefits.
In the House, Democratic Rep. Allen Boyd of Florida is backing a Social Security bill.
There are at least a few brave Democrats who think that allowing people to control their money instead of having the government do it is not such a bad idea. This must infuriate the leadership who has bragged they have unanimity on this one and threatened any Dem who strayed off message.
Having watched this same routine numerous times, it is simple to make a fairly accurate prediction:
Privatization (of some degree) is done. Enough Dems will cross over that the Dem leadership will (again) look like the extremist obstructionists they are. They will whine and complain, then right before the vote they will cave, only to pick up the whining a year later. (see also Iraq, the Patriot Act et al) This will piss of even more people who will vote Republican in 4 years.
Before you comment, remember, history is on my side.
– Its a stark case of being so embroiled in partisanship that you manage to achieve the worst of both worlds…… You buck everything in sight that has a GOP label…. scream from the rooftops loud, long, and clear that its all an evil neocon trick using the usual class warfare arguments, making sure everyone breathing knows how obstructionist you are…. and then you cave….. great strategy…. and this is supposed to be the party of intellectuals……????
This could be the start of a mass migration from the Soros/Dean demorats back to real democrats. In-party retaliation threats made to those that are thinking of going with privitization might not carry the weight they might have a year or two ago. In fact, it just might piss a few congressmen off.
There is zero chance you will see the President’s plans for sabotaging Social Security pass the Senate this term. The Republicans can’t even keep all their own members on this bus, and the Senate Democrats are united. I doubt you’ll be able to peel off a single one of them.
You will have to wait until 2006 before you’ll have a chance at this. By then, the GOP will have its hands full with a real crisis of faith— the collapse of the U.S. dollar, and the resulting economic panic.
Then you’ll be able to kill off Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid all in one sharp blow.
Let’s see , the budget has a half a trillion dollar deficit and the debt is higher then it has been in 8 or 9 years, but that’s OK, nothing needs to be done except save a few dollars on paperclips.
Social Security is in surplus and actually makes the Budget deficits look smaller each year to the tune of 100 billion or so and that needs to be fixed right now.
Can any here add? Fix the Budget crisis (or at least admit there is one), and the so-called SS “crisis” goes away.
THe fact that you coudl seriously sday there is no social security crisis removes, rick, any level of credibility that the rest of your comments might have had.
*Shakes head*
Amazing. .
I hope you are right and we up date SS. The fact that it has been a failure is not news Jimmy told us it was not working 27 years ago. Bill told us several times between 93 + 97. The progressives need to understant that 1929 was a long time ago/
Paul:
” …Dem leadership will (again) look like the extremist obstructionists they are. They will whine and complain… only to pick up the whining a year later. (see also Iraq, the Patriot Act et al)..”
followed by comments :
“..2006..By then, the GOP will have its hands full with a real crisis of faith— the collapse of the U.S. dollar, and the resulting economic panic.
Then you’ll be able to kill off Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid all in one sharp blow.”
Extremists? Geez, Paul, it’s like you knew what some of the comments would be before they were even posted. Freaky.
Les, let’s just say experience pays — right, Paul?
I’d say so, hah
RYan writes: The fact that you coudl seriously sday there is no social security crisis removes, rick, any level of credibility that the rest of your comments might have had.
Yet another Neo-Leninist. Great.
What, pray tell, is the nature of the present crisis in the Social Security program?
(Hint: the only sane answer to this question is that the crisis is the President and his supporters trying to manufacture a false consensus about a crisis in the program as a pretext for enacting new policies meant to sabotage it.)