South Carolina’s Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) has developed something of a reputation, which is not altogether unearned, for trying to play in straight when it comes to Social Security privatization, particularly when it comes to the plan’s price tag. To his credit, Graham, at least when compared to his some of his GOP colleagues, usually argues about the issue with some semblance of intellectual honesty.
Just today, for example, Graham told USA Today that the public hasn’t heard enough straight talk from Bush about his plan.
[Graham,] one of the Senate’s most influential advocates for overhauling Social Security, said Thursday that private investment accounts “are being oversold” as a solution and said President Bush will need to compromise in order to transform the program.
It’s why it was particularly disturbing to see Graham stoop to class warfare, Republican style, this week.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) just wants his Senate colleagues to put their mouths where their money is.
Speaking at a Cato Institute conference on Social Security reform yesterday, Graham said that what bothers him most about opposition to reform is that his fellow senators are “all in the thrift savings plan,” which provides a similar savings and investment structure as Graham’s reform plan.
“I love Jon Corzine, but for him to be against investing is a bit odd,” said Graham. Corzine, a Democratic senator from New Jersey who made his fortune at Goldman Sachs, is consistently listed among the top five richest members of Congress.
When Bush said something similar, he has plausible deniability — he was just reading what his staff wrote for him, plus no one really believes the president understands the nuances of public policy. But Graham surely knows better.
Neither Corzine nor congressional Dems in general have opposed investing in any way. I can’t seem to get away from Dems who seem overly anxious to say they’d support private investment accounts as an add-on to Social Security; it’s the White House that isn’t interested. Graham needs a straw man to attack, but he’s a little short on straw.
And more importantly, in case everyone hasn’t already heard, the Thrift Savings Plan Graham was referring to is a program that — you guessed it — supplements Social Security. It’s an odd-on. The money doesn’t come from the Social Security trust fund.
As Josh Marshall recently noted, even the Social Security Administration describes the Thrift Savings Plan as a 401k for government employees.
The TSP is a defined contribution plan similar to the 401K plans offered in the private sector. Contributions are made by payroll deduction. Both the money that is contributed and the interest earned are tax-deferred.
So Graham was whining to Cato that Dems oppose investing, which doesn’t make any sense, and are hypocrites from using the TSP while opposing privatization of Social Security, which makes even less sense.
The Republicans must really be getting desperate.