Social Security is probably the best example of our Government and its Citizens giving effect to the admonition in the Preamble that we should Promote the General Welfare. Yet, since its inception Social Security has been under attack by those who see it as Socialism or something worse.
Those of you who follow the Social Security non-crisis debate know that this is just the most recent example of the Republican dream come true - the first real opportunity to kill the program. They control both Houses of Congress and the White House. The chance may never come again. Now, they can't be up front about killing Social Security because the program is too popular. So they have to work through the side door.
First they'll undercut its funding by creating Private accounts. Next, they'll means test the program so that only the poorest get a meaningful benefit. Starting at an income of just $20,000 benefits will be reduced to the point that a person making over $90,000 will only have 19 percent of that income replaced by Social Security upon retirement. In time everyone in the middle class or above will see Social Security as nothing more than another form of welfare for the poor. And, as such, it will be a prime target for the budget axe. One need only look at the cuts currently proposed for Medicaid, the program that helps the needy and poor children, to see the strategy.
Most politicians and their supporters in the media are too canny to speak the truth about their real agenda. But every once in a while someone slips, and out comes the truth. This happened last Saturday night on the Capital Gang when the intrepid Mr. Novak blurted out the following -
NOVAK: We want more. The other thing -- the other thing is, on Social Security, I thought -- I thought it was a very good thing to start means testing, to star to work away at this fiction that this is an insurance program. It's really -- it's a -- it's a glorified Welfare program, and means testing is necessary. And it's going to come sooner or later.
My, My. Better watch out Bob. Poppa may spank you.
You can read the whole transcript here.
Gary L. Norton
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