Posted on 09/10/2011 5:52:02 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Washington — A growing divide over Social Security splits the two leading contenders for the Republican presidential nomination, and the differences between Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney foreshadow a tricky political dance with older voters.
Romney has seized on what he perceives as Perry’s vulnerability on a program that seniors hold dear, Democrats venerate as sacrosanct and Perry has labeled a “Ponzi scheme.”
That sets up a battle for older voters in Iowa, retirees in Florida and the Sun Belt, and Baby Boomers everywhere worried about their own recession-scarred retirement plans.
“If we nominate someone who the Democrats could correctly characterize as being against Social Security, we would be obliterated as a party,” Romney said on Sean Hannity’s radio program Thursday.
Perry is unyielding.
At a Friday fundraiser in California, Perry stood by his criticism of Social Security and his position that the program is best left to states to administer — a non-starter for many, including some Republicans.
“For people who are on Social Security now, like my folks, and people who are approaching Social Security, like me, it’s going to be there,” he said.
But, he said, he didn’t know at what point age-eligibility will have to be raised because the funds simply aren’t there.
“Anybody that’s for the status quo with Social Security today is involved with a monstrous lie to our kids, and it’s not right,” he said earlier this week during a debate.
An aging population has put a heavy burden on the Social Security Trust Fund: too few workers are paying for the benefits of a growing number of retirees. In 1950, there were 16 workers paying into the fund for each recipient. Last year, that ratio fell to three workers for every recipient. Left unaddressed, cuts in benefits would be forced in 2037.
But any talk of cutting benefits comes with political risk.
“Governor Perry’s immediate challenge is to knock down the hanging perception being driven that he wants to get rid of Social Security,” said Rich Killion, a Republican strategist who worked on Romney’s 2008 presidential bid and advised former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s bid this year.
The Romney-Perry spat comes as the contest for the Republican nomination begins to flare. With three formal debates and a handful of forums this month, the campaign to challenge President Barack Obama has taken on urgency as voters return from their summer vacations and start to pay attention to politics.
Since Perry joined the race last month, Romney has seen his lead fade, driving him to focus his aggressive criticism on Perry instead of looking ahead to a general campaign against Obama.
“The governor says look, states ought to be able to opt out of Social Security. Our nominee has to be someone who isn’t committed to abolishing Social Security, but who is committed to saving Social Security,” Romney said, sharing the stage with his rival.
An AP-GfK poll in May found that 70 percent of Americans consider Social Security deeply important to their financial security in retirement. Just 6 percent said it was “not at all” important.
Yet the public is split on the likelihood Social Security will be there for them: 35 percent say it is extremely or very likely to provide income their entire retirement, 30 percent somewhat likely and 35 percent not too or not at all likely.
It’s that uncertainty that both campaigns hope to tap.
“I know Florida certainly has an interest in Social Security given the large number of seniors we have here,” said John Thrasher, a Republican state senator and former state GOP chairman who backs Romney.
“It’s not whether it’s a Ponzi scheme or not. These are retired people who are pretty intelligent. They want Social Security to be maintained. And they understand there are problems that need to be fixed. There is an opportunity to fix Social Security so it’s a continued benefit for people who are getting it now and those who will get it in the future.”
Perry Barnstorms Newport Beach
Perry Campaign: Remember When Romney Compared Social Security to a Criminal Enterprise? [quote from Romney's book] " What would happen to the bankers responsible for misusing the money? They would go to jail. But what has happened to the people responsible for the looming bankruptcy of Social Security? They keep returning to Congress every two years.” [end quote]
There is another kind of Republican who sees the election of 2012 as a tipping point for the nation — a do-or-die moment when we will either pull back from the precipice of debt and national decline or fall off the edge. This second brand of Republican is hoping that a candidate will emerge who can lay before the American people the nature of the challenge we face in a direct and forthright way. If a campaign is run and won on the need to reform our obese government, the new president will have a mandate to take the necessary steps once in office.
After Wednesday’s Republican debate, it seems that Mitt Romney represents the first group, and Rick Perry stands for the second. ………………”
Rick Perry’s Air War (with the EPA)...........>>>Texas alone opted for the unfriendly approach. It’s the only state that did not issue a plan for compliance—and Perry has made it clear that Texas has no intention of complying. The move was a blatant slap to the Obama administration—and once again gave Perry the national spotlight. Defying the climate rules offered him the perfect opportunity to loudly decry the science of global warming—which in his book Fed Up! he calls a “contrived phony mess that is falling apart under its own weight”—and to slam EPA as a “rogue agency” with an “activist mind-set” that has “targeted Texas.” Such rhetoric is viral catnip to the tea party voters who could help catapult Perry to the 2012 presidential nomination.<<<..............
Metro - Carolyn and Ron Agnew, center, of Pflugerville, wait for Governor Rick Perry's arrival during the Rick Perry Welcome Home Rally at Abel's on the Lake in Austin on Saturday, August 20, 2011. LISA KRANTZ/lkrantz@express-news.net
In Texas Schools, Perry Shuns Federal Influence ………>>>When Secretary of Education Arne Duncan jabbed Mr. Perry on public schools in mid-August, it was only the latest skirmish between the governor and the Obama administration since late 2009, when Mr. Perry announced that the state would not sign on to common core-curriculum standards.<<<...
The Left is signaling that they hope a President Perry will fix education and get the inner cities out from under the impossible mess they've created.
Will Rick Perry Unravel the Strange Consensus on Public Education?
Trial lawyers prep for war on Perry America’s trial lawyers are getting ready to make the case against one of their biggest targets in years: Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
Among litigators, there is no presidential candidate who inspires the same level of hatred – and fear – as Perry, an avowed opponent of the plaintiffs’ bar who has presided over several rounds of tort reform as governor.
And if Perry ends up as the Republican nominee for president, deep-pocketed trial lawyers intend to play a central role in the campaign to defeat him.
That’s a potential financial boon to a president who has unsettled trial lawyers with his own rhetorical gestures in the direction of tort reform. A general election pitting Barack Obama and Perry could turn otherwise apathetic trial lawyers into a phalanx of pro-Obama bundlers and super PAC donors. …..”
The MSM is in overdrive trying to Romney as the Republican nominee.
The easiest way in the world to fix social security is to pull everyone in congress OUT of their comfy retirement plan that none of the proles will ever see, and put them into social security.
Once you start playing with money in THEIR pocket, you’ll see changes.
But, to quote Shrek, “Like that’ll ever happen”.
Perry’s right as was Bush.
The Masshole communist is wrong.
I’m not so sure.
SS payments would be pocket money to most of these folks.
Remember that Congress is not covered by insider trading laws, so as CNBC recently pointed out, most of them have “market crushing” investment returns.
That’s why folks spend millions to run for a job that pays thousands.
Same with their gold plated health care (THAT CAN NOT BE INCLUDED IN THE CRAP WE HAVE BEEN ORDERED TO BUY or else), barbershop perks, gym perks, car perks, mailing perks, travel perks.....
These people need to go home and get a damn job.
The only conflict is with Mittens and himself.
In his book he writes that the Social Security System is a Criminal Enterprise. And on stage he tries to defend it. As usual, Mittens has not seen a position on any issue he will not take if it polls well for him at the moment.
They are and HAVE been in it since 1984!
Things ARE changing!
Even a good many Freepers believe they have "paid into" some imaginary account.
My question is this? What Perry wrote in his book (I never read it) about his opinion on social security, was it the same as the rational he gave at the debate? Or was it just the response that his team prepared for, knowing that the question was coming?
Just wondering if he toned down his belief at the debate, or was his response identical to what he wrote in the book...anybody?
First, Perry qualified his answer during the debate by first stating that any changes would not affect current seniors or those, like him, who are soon to retire.
Just like liberals, the media, Romney and FReepers forget to mention that.
Second, SS is a ponzi scheme and must have changes in order to survive. Obama, during his “pass this teleprompter” speech said the same of Medicare.
Rubio won in Florida on a SS Reform platform.
This is much ado about nothing.
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The assumption of these arrogant journalists is that once anyone turns 65 he also turns stupid. The opposite is the case. We "Social Security Eligible" individuals are perfectly capable of understanding the truth. We tend to vote for those who speak it. Social Security IS a Ponzi Scheme. Those that deny that should not be president, nor in any other political office.
The MSM/Rep est had been pushing Perry, but I believe that is over and now they will try to push Romney. Polls are all manufactured on the current whim of the pollsters. For some reason they wanted to push Perry, just as they did Bachmann, prior to dropping her. Now they are going to push Romney again.
I predict that we will see this trend in the phony MSM/REP EST polls over the coming days.
One of the reasons they pushed MB and then RP, was in part to keep SP out of the race, but now they are in a funny spot, they no longer want to push Perry, so in essence they are going to end up helping SP, which they desperately wanted to show in a bad light.
All the polls are phony any way you slice it, they all have an agenda.
?????????????????????
November 2010: Perry calls Social Security bankrupt 'Ponzi scheme'
Aug 29, 2011: In Iowa Saturday, Perry reasserted the claim, first made in his 2010 treatise Fed Up!, that the federal retirement program is a "monstrous lie" perpetuated by Washington on the American public.
Sept 7, 2011: 4 Minute YouTube VIDEO Clip: Perry Fires At Rove & Romney: Social Security Is A "Ponzi Scheme" And A "Monstrous Lie"
BRAVO!!!
WELL SAID!
I am one of the eligible, I have been calling social security a Ponzi scheme all of my life, and I WILL vote for Rick Perry!
And Ron Johnson won a U.S. Senate seat in Wisconsin on a SS Reform platform.
So you have "God's waiting room" voters and "union stronghold" voters looking for leadership on the broken retirement program, social security.
President Perry is next.
Obama has already robbed SS funds and plans to rob some more with his 450 billion job plan.
>> The assumption of these arrogant journalists is that once anyone turns 65 he also turns stupid. The opposite is the case.
The journos also assume that seniors have no conscience, which is not the case either.
In general, they love their children greatly, and their grandchildren even more. A truthful dialog about fixing SS so their offspring won’t suffer the consequences can get traction.
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