Updated: The economy is in crisis, time to ask McCain about his Social Security privatization scheme

[ProSense]

McCain Signs on For More Bush Bamboozlement!

06.13.08 -- 11:42AM By Josh Marshall

For those of you who remember President Bush's 2005 crusade to phase out Social Security by privatizing the program and converting it into a system of private investment accounts, you know that one of the biggest lines of bamboozlement was the White House's attempt to take the word for Social Security privatization -- i.e., 'privatization' -- and pretend that it was a word Democrats had come up with and one that was unfair for any members of the press to use.

Needless to say, not only is 'privatization' an accurate description of the policy but it's also the one Republicans came up with and the one they used until polls showed definitively that the American people want to preserve Social Security and weren't for privatizing it. So 'privatization' was consigned to the memory hole and Republican spinmeisters tried to find as many ignorant or gullible journalists as they could to allow them to keep changing the name of their policy in order to trick the public into accepting a policy they didn't like.

After they dropped 'privatization' they called it 'private accounts'. And when 'private accounts' tanked too, they said that 'private accounts' wasn't fair either. They were really 'personal accounts.' The whole thing just got silly and sad.

It didn't work in 2005. But now McCain -- he of the straight talk -- is trotting it out again.

This video is from a townhall meeting in New Jersey just this morning ...

(Video: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/200044.php">McCain Plays the Social Security Privatization Word Game)

Update:

"I'll meet this financial crisis head on," McCain says. "Reform Wall Street. New rules for fairness and honesty. I won't tolerate a system that puts you and your family at risk."

What's missing here, of course, is any discussion of McCain's record when it comes to regulation of Wall St -- with only a few exceptions, the only times he's favored new rules were when they were more lax than the old rules.

It's also worth noting where McCain was during the last major banking panic, the Savings and Loan crisis of the 1980s: He was at the center of the Keating Five scandal, having given aid to a major banker who eventually went to prison for corporate malfeasance.

link

He's making this too easy!

[DeepBlueC]

1. oh yes, the time is right

:rofl: :hi:

[aquamarina]

2. An excellent idea.

[Morning Dew]

3. It's a damn good thing

that the pukes were stopped - can you imagine if boatloads of Social Security money was stuck in Lehman Bros. or AIG right now?

[elkston]

4. This needs to be an ad by the end of the week.

Really show the older voters the very REAL implications of gambling their saftey net on the open market.

Show the same stats and video clips of the "Fundamentals" ad, then have McCain talking about how SS should be privatized. Then follow up with some text about how McCain wants to put SS in the hands of Wall Street.

[ProSense]

6. Exactly. n/t

[barack the house]

5. I'm going to rob your retirement money my friends, I'm gonna bring bigger hurricanse my my friends->

The ring, the ring where is my ring. Smegal likes ring.

[renate]

7. this is not the time, IMHO

The debates... live, with tens of millions of people watching... THAT would be the time. :popcorn:

[ProSense]

8. Strike while the iron is hot.

Still can bring it up in the debate.

[Cha]

9. But, mccain will tolerate putting country last with the

sideshow of sarah palin.

Yeah, a reporter needs to ask mccain what about his privatizing our Social Security now! And, watch him call them an "Obama supporter".


That was the most disingenuous piece of Bullshit coming out of his surly insulting mouth today. Not about being an Obama supporter but about trying to discredit the pundithead by insinuating that 'cause he didn't like the question.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x7083426

[Waiting For Everyman]

10. Agree. Combined with

Obama's no tax on seniors and McCain taxing health benefits.

[ProSense]

11. Good points. n/t