GOP Scare Tactic: Social Security "Heading For Iceberg"

by Steve

Keep in mind over the coming weeks that the White House’s plan for undoing Social Security rests on convincing us that the system is “heading for an iceberg” and needs immediate action. It’s a lie, but a lie that the White House plans to repeat over and over again to scare citizens into believing it. And as Josh Marshall says, this strategy, modeled on the GOP’s deception campaign to sell us the Iraq war, is not about saving Social Security. It’s about undoing the New Deal and destroying the safety net and padding the pockets of Wall Street.

The GOP is worried about this, and they should be. The fact remains that there are alternatives to what the President wants to do that do not entail privatization, that do provide higher benefits than privatization, and that don’t saddle our children with decades of crippling debt. And this alternative doesn’t send our disabled and survivors back into poverty. And this alternative closes the funding gap without the debt, benefit reduction, and Wall Street pocket-lining entailed in Bush’s proposal to scuttle the system. It is the Orszag-Diamond plan, which the CBO says is superior to the Bush plan. And our wavering Senators and Representatives should be forced to read it and then tell us why they would support a plan that is worse for beneficiaries and the country (the Bush plan) when they could support the Orszag-Diamond plan. Unless of course they are on the take with Wall Street.

And yes, that means you Dianne Feinstein and Joe Lieberman, among others.

Update: Commenter Jonathan R. Davey correctly points out that as late as 2002 Lieberman was on record as being against the Bush Commission's privatization plan. But for some reason, Josh Marshall feels that Lieberman supports privatization.