Renewing America’s Mistakes
August 28th, 2008 by NSwiftThe last two evenings of the Democratic National Convention have been every bit as full of light, fluff, and glittery prose one would expect at the four day pajama party. Speakers have grinned through their spot to cover past offenses and dished out the same misty rhetoric over and over again. It’s all been very big on self-congratulations and very light on actual policy.
One of the most glaring omissions has been social security. It’s no secret this is a very important issue to FreedomWorks. In fact, our president, Matt Kibbe, has weighed in on this blog twice before wondering if the presidential candidates will get serious about retirement security.
If two throw-away lines can be considered serious then yes, the social security crisis is finally being addressed.
On Tuesday night, Senator Hillary said,” Now, John McCain is my colleague and my friend. He has served our country with honor and courage … John McCain wants to privatize Social Security,” as if that was a bad thing.
Later, on Wednesday night, Senator Biden expounded Senator Obama’s position on Social Security with stunning clarity and depth saying, “Barack Obama will … put the ’security’ back in Social Security.”
I went to Obama’s website to see what Biden meant by that and found it meant a tax hike, and no mention of stopping the current practice of Congress to use social security like a slush fund. It would be at least a step in the right direction to say that “Barack Obama will put the ‘trust’ back in Social Security Trust Fund and stop spending your money on pork barrel projects.”
Far from “Renewing America’s Promise” - Tuesday’s theme at the convention - this is repeating the mistakes of the past to continue to ignore the problem and conversely, the very simple steps that could be taken to give people choice and security.
August 28th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Nonpartisanship at its best.
Hey, did FreedomWorks pay off Kevin Mannix’s campaign debts? He paid off his campaign debts only after you guys gave him a bunch of money.
I mean, surely he didn’t bill you guys $300 bucks an hour for a thousand hours of work, did he? (Or maybe some equally extortionate ratio of hourly rate to hours worked.) And if he did, considering how badly FreedomWorks’s recent petition efforts in Oregon were botched, I would think you’d want your consulting fees back. I certainly wouldn’t be playing that fast and loose with my donors’ money, if it were me.
Don’t you think you kinda owe some kind of explanation to your grassroots donors? Seems like all that money you’re getting from those nice elderly folks in North Carolina isn’t exactly being spent responsibly. And since I’m on your email list and am, therefore, a member of FreedomWorks (according to your own representations to the media) I don’t think it’s out-of-line for me to ask the question, you know?
But anyway, feel free to delete this as always.
August 30th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
My worries over privatization of SS are the following:
1. The average American with a 401k can’t handle that, let alone SS.
2. My parents are too old and their health and, face it, intelligence on most things (including finances) is extremely limited. They just couldn’t handle the change.
3. Is allowing huge corporations a hand in our “kettle” really any better than the government? I don’t want Morgan Stanley directing my funds–look what they’ve done with oil speculation! I don’t want insurance companies handling it either–look what’s happened to health care!
4. I agree that government should keep its hands out of the SS pot; they need to close it to everything except where it is meant to go. While they’re at it, hey should also make deductions from ALL payrolls, not just the under $100k earners. That would quickly shore up the funds.
August 30th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
“as if that was a bad thing.”
Well, if you call blowing a HUGE hole in the ability of SS to pay benefits out, then yea…it’s a bad thing.
“found it meant a tax hike, and no mention of stopping the current practice of Congress to use social security like a slush fund.”
Yea, a tax hike on the very, very rich only. BTW, SS is not a “slush fund”…how low does the fear-monerging go with you people??
“hey should also make deductions from ALL payrolls, not just the under $100k earners. That would quickly shore up the funds.”
This is basically exactly what Obama wants to do.