What is republican Presidential candidate Rick Perry’s angle on attacking Social Security? Anyone who cares to research this topic knows that SSI will remain solvent through 2036 even if taxes aren’t raised. Is this just a cheap shot at Obama? In his recent book he criticizes the program as an evil holdover of the Roosevelt Administration that will ultimately fail when the funding runs out and our children will be robbed of their retirement. Really Rick?

Cap’t Jack

The Republican party is ideologically opposed to any large governmental programs apart from the military, that includes Social Security. The strategy to do away with them has been to run up huge deficits and then refuse to raise taxes on the wealthy: it’s a game of chicken. And now, one has to suppose that Perry thinks we’re close enough to the endgame to start calling openly for abolition of these social programs.

I agree. I also see him committing political suicide by attacking SSI as many of his constituents (i.e. the older generation who rely on it).  Most of them are conservative republicans who vote! I just hope that Obama doesn’t sell the rest of us out by pandering to the conservatives. Those of us at retirement age or near it need to be very concerned!

The trouble is that he’s not attacking all of social security.  He says that no one presently on or close to SS won’t be affected.  His changes would only take effect for younger people.  That way, he doesn’t upset the elderly, and most younger people don’t think about their retirement that carefully to see the defects in his plans.

Occam

So Perry wants to drive the disaffected youth into the hands of the REAL ponzi schemers! And yet he states that those who presently benefit from SSI are the ones who will drain off the funds for future retirees. Blaming the hard working middle class won’t solve the problem. There are over 300 milliion of us now benefitting from all government programs and the Republicans think that we can continue without raising taxes. Unbelievable!

Cap’t Jack

thevillageathiest - 13 September 2011 02:09 PM

What is republican Presidential candidate Rick Perry’s angle on attacking Social Security? Anyone who cares to research this topic knows that SSI will remain solvent through 2036 even if taxes aren’t raised. Is this just a cheap shot at Obama? In his recent book he criticizes the program as an evil holdover of the Roosevelt Administration that will ultimately fail when the funding runs out and our children will be robbed of their retirement. Really Rick?

Cap’t Jack

Anyone who has read his book will tell you the only scheme you have to be concerned with is the scheming of Rick himself.

That’s true and Mitt will probably edge him out of the race anyway. He looks slicker, sounds more moderate and will satisfy the faithheads by touting his Mormon values. But that remains to be seen. I imagine that to keep up with Mitt, Perry will back off of his more radical (reactionary?) platform planks. He still looks and sounds scary!

Cap’t jack

pssst,

haven’t you noticed. . .

the whole corporate “Free-Market” way of doing business,
along with our military industrial complex
is a “Ponzi scheme”

thevillageathiest - 14 September 2011 04:56 AM

That’s true and Mitt will probably edge him out of the race anyway. He looks slicker, sounds more moderate and will satisfy the faithheads by touting his Mormon values. But that remains to be seen. I imagine that to keep up with Mitt, Perry will back off of his more radical (reactionary?) platform planks. He still looks and sounds scary!

Cap’t jack

I’m not so sure if it will be that easy for Romney. Have you seen the approval ratings lately? Perry is smashing the rest of them, including Romney. Romney was leading UNTIL Perry stepped on the scene. Not to mention that he’s much better looking than any of the other nominees, including Romney. He’s got that down home, good ole’ boy, “aw shucks” kinda vibe, which increases his appeal with the Southerners down here.

Also, its Romney’s Mormonism that bothers the “faithheads”, not satisfies them! About a week before Perry announced that he was going to run, he led a massive CHRISTIAN prayer rally down here in Houston, Texas (where I live) to pray for the country. Of course it was a political stunt to gain the appeal of the religious before announcing his run, but it worked. The hardcore Christian Conservatives down here are fawning over him. My mother-in-law, who is a staunch Christian conservative, was talking about the guy like he was the Second Coming after she got back from the prayer rally. And then BOOM, he comes “out of nowhere” saying that he was going to run for president. I remember talking to my wife about the guy when she told me about the prayer rally her mother in law was going to. I was like “don’t be surprised if the guy makes a surprise announcement that he is running for president”. And then BAM! Yep, just like I predicted. He knows what he’s doing. At the rally, he made tons of comments that “this wasn’t about politics or government”, but about the “Church and the Country”. People bought it, and they’re still buying it right now.

While Perry is indeed scary, he’s not Bachman scary. Bachman’s an idiot. That’s why the Democrats weren’t afraid of her. In fact, they were probably hoping that she became the GOP nominee, because they knew that she’d eventually get steamrolled by the Democrat competition. Perry, he’s a lot smarter. He’s an experienced politician that knows exactly what to say and when to say it. His presently aggressive rhetoric appeals to the passionate desperation of those who are looking for someone to “fix” things. People are desperate and angry. The poverty rate is very high, tons of people are out of work, and everyone is pointing fingers. When someone comes in and blasts the entire system with the energy that Perry has, he tends to sound more genuine, and engender “hope” for the masses. He totes his “job creating” record, but conveniently leaves out the fact that the jobs rating has been increasing at a steady straight line for more than 20 years, even before he got here. He also leaves out the fact that most of those jobs are minimum wage jobs that only the immigrants can live off of, which explains why so many of them have work down here.

Whatever any of you do, DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE PERRY. The guy’s a heavy-hitter and he’s not a joke. He will work just as hard to appeal to the moderates. We can only hope that the more moderate Republicans eventually see him for what he really is, and that is, in my opinion, a career politician.

Occam. - 13 September 2011 05:43 PM

The trouble is that he’s not attacking all of social security.  He says that no one presently on or close to SS won’t be affected.  His changes would only take effect for younger people.  That way, he doesn’t upset the elderly, and most younger people don’t think about their retirement that carefully to see the defects in his plans.

Occam

how close is he to social security age himself?

Believe me, I don’t underestimate him one bit! The people in my area are setting up and taking notice! His buzz words are hitting home to the arch-conservatives in Appalachia (Maybe I should point out to them that after the rain prayer, Texas caught on fire). His touting the U.S. as a “Christian nation” may gain him the faithhead votes but there are still moderates in the republican party who will shy away from him because of his attack on Social Security. Also, he showed no remorse in signing the death warrants of over 200 prisoners on death row. One was later found innocent. There was clapping and cheering from the audience! I thought I heard “crucify him” (lame biblical reference). It’s of course too early to make any accurate prediction but Romney looks like a President (Warren G. Harding), and sounds presidential (William McKinley) and these elements have contributed to many a sucessful presidential campaign. Propaganda works because the American public pay little attention to the real issues. they go with the glitz. And as a friend remarked to me today. “Perry looks evil”. “He has a sinister smile”. Hey remember, Kennedy barely defeated Nixon, and his handsome looks and winning smile helped put him over the top. In the debates, Nixon looked like a seedy crook with his five o’clock shadow and his hang-dog expression. And he was more politically savy!  Food for thought though.

Cap’t Jack

skuld - 16 September 2011 03:57 PM

Occam. - 13 September 2011 05:43 PM

The trouble is that he’s not attacking all of social security.  He says that no one presently on or close to SS won’t be affected.  His changes would only take effect for younger people.  That way, he doesn’t upset the elderly, and most younger people don’t think about their retirement that carefully to see the defects in his plans.

Occam

how close is he to social security age himself?

That doesn’t matter when you’re already wealthy.

Oh yeah, and don’t miss that Perry has changed his tune about the Social Security thing. Now he’s saying that he never meant to do away with it, but merely to “fix a broken system”. That’s very funny, because that sounds VERY different from what people say that he was saying in his book. I guess, after the public reaction to his comments, his advisers cautioned him to back off a bit, and go in a different direction on the social security debate.

Another thing that I just can’t understand is how you can call something that I pay into an “entitlement”. Its not like I have it by birth or race, or anything else. Its something that I pay into. Its my money. Isn’t it “framing” when you use words with such negative connotations?

Is SS a Ponzi scheme?
I guess it is, and all US governments are also.

Government does not produce anything to make a dollar in profit. So it has to continue to feed from the taxpayer to pay for it’s programs. And worst, borrow funds to pay for short falls.

So if any politician cry’s for nixing government programs labeled as Ponzi schemes, then can I take that to mean this politician expects a short term in office if elected?
Today’s challengers for Obama’s seat come up with some crazy rhetoric don’t they?

Actually if you look at all the science that the government funds, if it were to assume the patents and take the profits from all that, it’d make a huge amount of money. It’s rather the case that businesses don’t want the government to make a dollar in profit: they prefer to keep the profits for themselves, which I well understand.

citizenschallenge.pm - 14 September 2011 05:42 PM

pssst,

haven’t you noticed. . .

the whole corporate “Free-Market” way of doing business,
along with our military industrial complex
is a “Ponzi scheme”

I once read about big business or screw the customer full speed ahead.  Personally I feel that if they had added screw the employees as well we would all have a better understanding of how big business works.