Sen. Santorum, do you also agree that Social Security is a “socialist retirement system?”
UPDATE: Sen. Santorum, do you also agree with your cheerleaders at the Tribune-Review that Social Security is a "socialist retirement system" that cannot be sustained without massive benefit cuts?From his Tribune-Review soapbox, Colin McNickle spews more personal attacks at Americans United and more gushing praise over Sen. Santorum's pro-privatization stance
Washington D.C. - In response to the second column in a week from Colin McNickle, editorial page director for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, devoted to smearing Americans United, the group which derailed President Bush's effort to privatize Social Security in 2005, and praising Senator Rick Santorum's stalwart support for the risky investment scheme, Americans United today posed a follow-up question to the Senator: Do you also agree with your cheerleaders at the Tribune-Review that Social Security is a "socialist retirement system" that cannot be sustained without massive benefit cuts? To date, Senator Santorum has not responded to the question Americans United posed last week: Do you agree with the Tribune-Review that Social Security is "a quite onerous Big Government bait-and-switch racket that would make Charles K. Ponzi, father of the Ponzi scheme, most proud."Colin McNickle continued his assault on Social Security and Americans United's unwavering defense of the cherished retirement program in his July 23rd column, "Mixed nuts on the Left:"
Long it did not take for the intellectual midgets of Marxism at Americans United for (state your cause here) to respond to last week's column on the organization's devotion to the fiscally irredeemable socialist retirement system known as Social Security.
[...]
Mr. Santorum, who sometimes gets his economics right, smartly supports moving toward a system of private, market-based accounts.
[...]
Social Security cannot be sustained without massive tax increases and/or benefits cuts.
"Senator Santorum seems to be content letting his friends do his dirty work for him," said Jeremy Funk, Press Secretary for Americans United. "Rick Santorum knows that the vast majority of Pennsylvanians have already rejected the President's efforts to dismantle Social Security with a risky investment scheme. He doesn't deny that privatization would mean massive benefit cuts and nearly a trillion dollars in additional debt. Sen. Santorum knows that privatization wouldn't add a single day to the life of Social Security - not one single day. What better way to hide from his hugely unpopular pro-privatization stance than to let a conservative rag muddy the water for him with personal smears and absurd distortions?"
WHY PRIVATIZATION IS A BAD DEAL FOR PENNSYLVANIA
- Privatization is a bad deal for American's families and will weaken retirement security by imposing massive cuts in the guaranteed benefit that is a foundation for a secure retirement
- Privatization will put our economy at risk by relying on trillions of dollars of new borrowing and debt, mostly held by China, Japan, and other foreign creditors, and imposed a huge new burden of taxes on your workers, their children, and grandchildren to finance this debt.
- Privatization will weaken the long-term fiscal integrity of Social Security by diverting funds from the Social Security Trust Fund, at a time when we should be strengthening Social Security for the future.
- Social Security is a fundamentally sound program that can be strengthened through common-sense, bipartisan approaches - not radical changes. The first step in assuring the strength of the program is to assure that the money Americans have paid in to Social Security is used for Social Security - but President Bush and the proponents of privatization won't commit even to that.
"Senator Santorum ought to fight his own battles," added Funk. "Privatization was a bad deal in 2005; it's every bit as bad today. Pennsylvania seniors who resoundingly rejected this disastrous proposal last year have every right to know if their Senator agrees with Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that the "only answer" for Social Security's future is massive benefit cuts?"
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