Democrats rip GOP on Social Security plan (privatizing could cause huge debt for decades)

Yahoo News ^ | 7/08/06 | MIKE WILSON

[Libloather]

Democrats rip GOP on Social Security plan
By MIKE WILSON, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 21 minutes ago

DES MOINES, Iowa - The Republican plan to privatize Social Security could cause huge debt for decades, a Democratic candidate seeking a House seat in Iowa, a state with a high concentration of elderly residents, said Saturday.

"If the Republican plan is allowed to pass, future generations both here and across the country will be saddled with decades of debt and no guaranteed retirement security," Bruce Braley said in the Democrats' weekly radio address.

Braley, 48, a lawyer from Waterloo, faces Republican Mike Whalen in the contest to fill the seat being vacated by Republican Rep. Jim Nussle, who is running for governor. The race is considered one of the more competitive in the country.

Braley said Social Security is under attack, with President Bush and congressional Republicans making privatization a top priority in 2007. He also accused the Bush administration of "plundering the Social Security trust fund while giving billions away to special interests, like big oil."

"They are spending the money seniors rely on while making no effort to balance the budget or protect the limited funds we have for retirement security," he said.

According to the 2000 census, Iowa ranks fourth in the nation in percentage of population 65 and older, at 14.9 percent, behind Florida, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Bush had called for a complete overhaul of Social Security, including creation of personal savings accounts and a reduction in future benefits promised to younger workers. But legislation failed to make it to the floor of either the House or Senate.

Braley said the Bush administration and the Republican-led Congress have failed to reform Medicare and the nation's energy policy and should not be trusted with Social Security.

"This is the same team that set out to reform Medicare but instead let lobbyists create a confusing, expensive program that was little more than a payoff to the big pharmaceutical and insurance companies," Braley said of the Medicare prescription drug plan.

Braley said it's time for a change in Washington with a Democratic-led Congress.

"Because after six years of misplaced priorities, George Bush and his rubber-stamp Republican Congress cannot be trusted to protect something as vital as Social Security," he said.

[Libloather]

George Bush and his rubber-stamp Republican Congress cannot be trusted...

Did the RATS or Big Media have a cow when *Crinton and his rubber-stamp Democrat Congress raised taxes more than ever before?

[andyk]

What a wonderful hit-piece.

[digger48]

No, but the voters did

[MNJohnnie]

What does this insane Democrat Moron think is happening now? What the solution to stop the system from going bankrupt Democrat clown candidate?

And of course Asso Propaganda just laps it up and repeats it like the good little DNC whores they are.

[ExcursionGuy84]

Who is Crinton???

[jmaroneps37]

My wife and I listened to this jerk in our car. We laughed at him.

[R.W.Ratikal]

Social Security is a tax. The tax revenues that come in as Social Security payments are promptly spent.

Democrats are dead set against cutting or reducing any incoming source of revenue to government.

I am 78 years old. I receive a Social Security check every month. I also work and pay Social Security taxes each week by payroll deductions.

Last years my taxes canceled out the amount of S/S I received. In other words, the taxes I paid was slightly more than the amount I received in SS payments. Go figure.

[AdvisorB]

"Braley, 48, a lawyer from Waterloo, faces Republican Mike Whalen..."


Ironically, the country will be facing a financial "Waterloo" if we don't come to grips with the ticking demographic time-bomb. Just as the leftist DUmmies ridiculed, criticized, and opposed SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative), so they have done the same with meaningful social security reform. Truly the DumRats are the party of reaction. They are standing athwart history and screaming--NO!!

[Libloather]

A good friend of the Chicoms...

[lilylangtree]

Yo RATS what's your solution? And don't plan on raising taxes. Come on, we're all ears!

[PISANO]

The Leftist Dims have ONLY ONE PLAN to save Social Security and that is to RAISE TAXES, and that TAX increase will make all other taxes increases PALE in comparison.

All other plans to save SS that do NOT strictly RAISE TAXES, will NOT be considered!!!

They are truly the party of stagnation and taxation.

[NonValueAdded]

Horsehockey ... the debt burden currently exists. Instead of investing our trust fund money in corporations with real assets and the means of production to repay any debt instruments, Congress "invested" the money in social engineering programs, retaining only the means of taxation to repay those worthless pieces of paper in that file cabinet. That RAT is a bald-faced LIAR!

[pankot]

The Social Security bugaboo is and has been the same old Dimocrat s__t fot the past 50 years.

[rottndog]

The Republican plan to privatize Social Security could cause huge debt for decades,...

I guess the TRILLIONS of dollars in IOUs (treasury bonds) that have been stuffed in the SS "lock box" and will have to at some point be repaid aren't really debt. It's starting to scare the hell out of me how stupid much of the American public are.

[Bommer]

"If the Republican plan is allowed to pass, future generations both here and across the country will be saddled with decades of debt and no guaranteed retirement security," Bruce Braley said in the Democrats' weekly radio address.

"...which when compapared with our plan which is do nothing, will totally bankrupt the country and LEAD THE WAY TO THE RISE OF THE 4TH REIC......I mean taking the house and senate in 2006! YEAAHHHH!"

[MaDeuce]

"What does this insane Democrat Moron think is happening now? What the solution to stop the system from going bankrupt Democrat clown candidate?"

What's the Dem solution you ask? Well take a look at your 401K statement ... now picture that statement being replaced by a official notice from the Feds saying that all 401K's will now be confiscated by the federal gov't and that this will save SS and you will get your money back when you retire.

THAT! is their plan ... and anyone on this board that doesn't think so is fooling themselves.

[Howie66]

What would be really "news worthy" is if the RAT party could actually come up with a REAL idea on their own.

Since that gaggle of emotionally driven (and developmentally arrested) pansies and punks do not engage their intellect under any circumstance, that's not likely to happen.

Collectively, the RAT party is a waste of dna.

[rodguy911]

It's the same old crap again, this guy must be a hard core lib/rat. Just repeat the big lies over and over again,SS, the war, etc.etc and watch how our side tries to claim that the rat lies really are lies. It never ends.

What you really get back to however is how the lies are delivered to the voting populace. All the dems need is a willing media wherever they are and their little game can go on forever.

Running on SS is what you do when you have nothing at all, no meaningful campaign ideas. Dems seldom do.It's the ultimate demagoguery.

[milagro]

While contributing no small amount to their own Thrift Savings Plan because they are Federal Employees! EVERY time a Deomocrat starts knocking privatizing SS as Republican should ask them if they would be willing to give up their TSP account. The Dims count on the general public having no idea they have such an account. It is heavily invested in the stock market--and they can control how much "risk" they want to take by investing in a variety of plans.

Would love to see a Dim congresscritter sputter out a response as to why he can have a TSP account--but doesn't want any John Q Public getting one!

[tflabo]

Oh great..more brave rhetoric from the no guts, no ideas party of the 'Rats. SS is a sinking ship and the 'Rats band plays on. Excuse me but it was past Rat congresses that raided the SS Trust Fund.....now crippled with fear and political hype the 'Rats scare well but dont solve problems....the 'Rat party of no ideas and the spineless wimp GOP who cave to them leave us with bankrupt leadership in these tumultuous times.

[Reddy]

From what I have read, the Feds are already raiding the TSP to shore up the general budget.

[Eagles Talon IV]

"Who is Crinton???"

Hirrary's husband?

[FormerACLUmember]

The rats have been lying for 70 years that the Republicans are planning to eliminate Social Security.

Is anyone stupid enough to actually believe this anymore?

[RoadTest]

Got a better solution, DimBulbs?

[theBuckwheat]

This is absurd! What is the net economic difference between an implied liability that is measured in trillions of dollars and liquidating that liability dollar for dollar by issuing a special class of government bonds? None!

implied liability of government = special debt in private hands.

This is the only proposal that increases liberty and increases wealth and increases property rights.

This is the only sensible plan. It is the only plan that reduces the ability of Congress to game the system by adding to the benefits without recognizing the costs. It is the only proposal that converts the implied obligation into a special form of treasury debt that will become a piece of private property that can be traded and will have a market price.

And in doing so, it is the only plan that will not have a negative net change in economic consequences. If anything, the property rights aspect of it will be a positive.

[goldstategop]

What Bruce Braley is not telling voters is Social Security, like today's pension plans, faces the prospect of being underfunded in the next 30 years. That may seem like a long time to politicians in office right now, but it was just yesterday when we celebrated the Bicentennial. So why won't the Democrats level with the American people and admit Social Security is in need of reform?

(The Palestinian terrorist regime is the crisis and Israel's fist is the answer.)

[Lakeshark]

The Republican plan to privatize Social Security could cause huge debt for decades

As opposed to doing nothing and causing huge debt for decades........

[rodguy911]

So why don't the democrats level with the American people and admit social security is in need of reform.

For the same reason they don't tell the truth about anything, SS, the war, border, you name it, if people knew what the rats really stand for, even today, they would get few if any votes.

[Jacquerie]

Truly the DumRats are the party of reaction. They are standing athwart history and screaming--NO!!

Just as the eventual sinking of the Titanic after striking an iceberg was described as a "mathematical certainty", so too shall the existing Social Security system sink our economy. Governments and Constitutions are at risk when economies fail, which is what the rats want. Government to the rescue to punish the rich, the productive, property owners, kulaks, . . . .

[Wuli]

And if we leave Social Security as it is it's debt will just float away, like to never-never land, if you believe this idiot.

[AdvisorB]

Yes, quite right, and the American leftist/RATs will define a "kulak" as anyone owning two cars, or has a two car garage. Quite frankly, the RATs simply have no answers at this stage in American history. They need to go the way of the Whigs, an infamy that they richly deserve.

[pierrem15]

And the current Social Security system won't cause debts for generations to come???

What a pack of liars.

[lasereye]

The thing that's absurd about the Dem's radio piece is that privatization is completely dead at least for now. Nothing else will be done on it for the rest of the Bush years, at a minimum.

[Waco]

So, naturally, what you do is give benefits to illegal aliens, right? Maybe raise the retirement age to"save S.S." and give benefits to illegal aliens, right? Raise the S.S. tax to "save S.S." and give benefits to illegal aliens right? Well, GREAT NEWS the US Senate has voted to do exactly that,,,give benefits to illegal aliens!!!