Social Security: Republican Senator Decries Democrats for ‘Scare Tactics’

... which strikes us as rich -- because forcing seniors to rely on private accounts to live through retirement, when you look at the numbers, is the scariest tactic of all. But we digress, so let's go back to the comments of Senate Finance Committee chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), reported in the Cedar Rapids Gazette:

Grassley said the Democrats are losing Iraq as a political issue to recapture a congressional majority and have fallen back to "scare tactics" about Social Security to fuel their campaign.

"I don’t think I agree right now there is a big push by anybody to set up personal accounts" under Social Security, Grassley told Iowa reporters.

Oh, of course not, Senator. Only a conspiracy theorist would look at the new moves by the White House Office of Management and Budget (*.pdf):

The Mid-Session Budget Review released by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) today included a proposal that would spend $721 billion – nearly $10 billion more than originally planned in the President’s original Fiscal Year 2007 budget – to turn Social Security into a system of private accounts with lower guaranteed benefits to Americans. The President’s proposal to privatize Social Security includes significant cuts in guaranteed benefits for the vast majority of Social Security recipients through the indexing of initial benefits to prices, rather than wages.

... senior members of the House Ways & Means Committee:

Congress should make Social Security overhaul its top priority next year ... House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee Chairman Jim McCrery, R-La., said today ... "If we can get [Social Security] done, I think that buys us the political capital to move on to the bigger issues of health care," he said.

... or the President of the United States:

Now is the time for the Congress and the President to work together to reform Medicare and reform Social Security so we can leave behind a solvent balance sheet for our next generation of Americans. ... If we can't get it done this year, I'm going to try next year. And if we can't get it done next year, I'm going to try the year after that, because it is the right thing to do.

... and get any sense that, deep in their hearts, Republicans want to cashier Social Security. Thank you, Senator Grassley, for setting that straight.

Let's make a deal: when Republican leaders quit trying to privatize Social Security -- to sneak it through the back door, as it were -- we'll reevaluate whether it's safe to quit warning America that Republicans want to privatize it. Capisce?

Posted by Americans United For Change Web Team