One of the reasons I started this blog was to combat, in my own small way, the Bush attack on social security. I educated myself on the issue quite a bit. Back then, it looked like Bush was going to succeed in privatizing the system, with help from folks like Lieberman and little resistance from the scaredy Dems, who were ready to run from the fight. After all, Bush had just been re-elected, and although he never mentioned plans to destroy social security, he took his questionable (see, Ohio) re-election as a mandate to do just that and secure for himself the Holy Grail of conservatism. It didn’t work, thanks not to the Democrats in Congress, but to the Democrats on the home front, who made it clear to the wusses that they weren’t going to put up with a cave in on this issue.
There are no permanent victories however. This article, from the Columbia Journalism Review, (via Hullabaloo) gives some good background on the intensifying media campaign to spread lies about Social Security in order to destroy the program. This campaign is succeeding for two reasons:
1. Republicans continue to push their lies.
2. Democrats absolutely fail to push the truth, and when they do, they do it in a fashion so apologetic that they are totally unconvincing. A corollary of this is that they absolutely fail to work the media, which inevitably follows the path of least resistance, which is to parrot the Republican lies.
The article is well worth the read. One quibble: the author, Trudy Lieberman, quotes one Social Security critic who conflates the budgetary impact of Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid, without noting how intellectually dishonest that is. The programs are entirely separate, and while Medicare and Medicaid do have serious financial problems (caused mainly by the skyrocketing cost of health care), Social Security does not, and what long term problems it has could be easily fixed. Arguing that Social Security and Medicare are causing huge budget deficits is a little like arguing that eating carrots and ice cream will make you fat. It’s true, but there’s no need to mention the carrots.
She does note something else of which all should be aware. The recent payroll tax holiday, or whatever you want to call it, is a Trojan Horse designed to destroy Social Security. If it weren’t for the Republican’s inability to support anything Obama is for, they would never have opposed extending it. If it is continued indefinitely, then the argument that Social Security is a welfare program becomes more legitimate. The program has popular support and legitimacy because people believe, and rightly so, that they have worked and paid for their benefits. Separate the payments from the benefits, and you undermine the system.
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