Will Marshall compared Borosage's activist group to an Inquisition.

[madfloridian]

I am doing a little research on the private savings accounts, which are just another way to eventually dismantle the Social Security System by defunding it. It is just using different words. I will post more later. I was outraged to find this statement by Will Marshall of the DLC/PPI, as I love the activities of Robert Borosage and Roger Hickey and this group.

Robert Borosage is a co-director of Campaign for America's Future. Here is
the website, a very good one.
www.ourfuture.org
They led the fight in the 2002 elections to save Social Security and
Medicare in its current form. They still are doing it.

Will Marshall, PPI/DLC, attacked them viciously in 2002, calling them a
union-backed group that can be compared to the Inquisition, latter-day
Torquemadas, who oppose change to the system.
http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?contentid=251076&kaid=125&subid=165

"Nothing better epitomized the hackneyed and reactive character of the
Democrats' 2002 midterm campaign than "The Pledge."
Like camp meeting converts swearing off demon rum, nearly every Democratic
candidate for Congress dutifully took the Pledge. They vowed to never, ever
allow working Americans to divert some portion of their Social Security
payroll taxes into personal retirement accounts. In leftish circles, this
goes by the name of "privatization" and is regarded as the ultimate
political thought crime. "

SNIP.."And lest Democrats entertain any impure thoughts about reforming
Medicare, the pledge also requires them to swear fealty to a new
prescription drug entitlement "that will cover all drugs beneficiaries need"
and that won't "push beneficiaries into HMOs and other managed care plans."

The pledge is the brainchild of the Campaign for America's Future, a
union-backed organization that is to Social Security and Medicare what the
Inquisition was to medieval Christiandom. Its latter-day Torquemadas enforce
New Deal-Great Society orthodoxy and ferret out heresy with religious
zeal..."

In this article he calls prescription drug care "a lavish entitlement."

In this article he appears to be saying that the Democrats lost in 2002 because they opposed changing these programs. Come into the real world, Will Marshall.

[IrateCitizen]

1. Will Marshall = PNAC

He's a signatory. He can piss up a rope, as far as I'm concerned.

[glitch]

2. ditto. nt

[madfloridian]

3. Here is the current letter from CAF website, for activists to send.

SNIP..."President Bush is claiming a mandate to privatize Social Security. I’m writing to tell you that he has no mandate from me – or from most other Americans – to cut Social Security benefits or add to America’s financial burdens in order to reward his Wall Street backers with risky private accounts.

I am writing to ask where you stand, and to ask you to declare yourself opposed to Bush’s misguided scheme.

Social Security is a bedrock of American values – ensuring that becoming old in America doesn’t mean becoming poor. The president’s plan to cut guaranteed benefits to funnel Social Security dollars through Wall Street traders is expensive and dangerous – I am calling on you to declare your opposition to it.

I would like you to write me back immediately to answer the following crucial questions:

1) Will you oppose privatizing Social Security in any way? That means that you will oppose any law that funnels Social Security dollars into risky Wall Street private accounts.

2) Will you oppose any law that raises the retirement age, cuts guaranteed benefits, and/or adds debt onto the backs of young people and future generations?

I and millions of concerned Americans are gearing up to fight the president’s dangerous plan, and we need to know whether you stand with us or with the Wall Street financial interests who are salivating at the chance to earn millions off of our Social Security.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that under a partially privatized system proposed by Bush’s Social Security commission, a worker who is 34-years old today would see benefit cuts of 23%, a 24-year old worker today would see cuts of 30%, and a child born today (2004) would at retirement have a Social Security benefit 45% smaller than current law would provide.

In short, the Bush privatization plan would be yet another economic hardship forced on working families – especially on younger Americans – adding some $2 trillion in debt onto the backs of future generations in just the first 10 years.

Today’s young people rarely have jobs with real pensions, and low wages make it difficult to save for retirement. Please do not undermine the one reliable source of retirement income that for generations has kept most seniors out of poverty.

Please let me know you won’t be an accomplice to undermining the Social Security system...."
http://action.ourfuture.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=23131

Join the fight.

[ulysses]

4. that's 'activist elites' to you, bub.

;-)

[madfloridian]

5. Oh, right, I forgot.

:evilgrin: