Following up on an item from this morning, there’s already video proof that John McCain supports privatizing Social Security, just as Bush attempted to do in 2005. Realizing the pressure’s on, today McCain attempted to, well, lie about it.
For those who can’t watch clips online, McCain told voters at an event in New Jersey, “I just want to mention on the issue of Social Security. McCain wants to quote ‘privatize’ Social Security. My friends, I do not and will not privatize Social Security. It’s a government program, and it’s necessary, but it’s broken, and we gotta tell the American people that we gotta fix it. We gotta sit down together, the way that Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neil did in 1983 and fix Social Security.
“But my friends, I will not privatize Social Security, and it’s not true when I’m accused of that, but I would like for younger workers — younger workers, only — to have an opportunity to take a few of their tax dollars, a few of theirs, and maybe put it into an account with their name on it. That’s their money. That’s their money.
“So, when I say that, when I say that, please don’t let them twist that as they have others. It’s their money. It’s their money. It’s your money. And we will make sure that present-day retirees — I will commit — have the benefits that they have earned. And nothing, any proposal, would change that.”
The irony is, in 2004, McCain acknowledged that he does, in fact, want to privatize Social Security, and in 2008, McCain insists he doesn’t, but his position hasn’t changed — only his definition of privatization has.
Matt Yglesias summarized this nicely: “In short, [McCain] stridently denies that he wants to favor privatizing Social Security. He just favors policies that are the same as the policies that were called ‘privatizing Social Security’ before the GOP found out that privatizing Social Security is unpopular.”
That’s really the entire debate. Dems say, “McCain, you want to privatize Social Security.” McCain responds, “No I don’t, I just want people to have private accounts with money that used to go into the Social Security system.”
Except that’s what privatization means. McCain admitted as much in 2004, and as Josh Marshall noted this morning, “[N]ot only is ‘privatization’ an accurate description of the policy but it’s also the one Republicans came up with and the one they used until polls showed definitively that the American people want to preserve Social Security and weren’t for privatizing it.”
With McCain, we’ve gone from debating “verb tense” to debating the meaning of “privatize.” Didn’t Republicans used to hate Bill Clinton for word parsing?
All of the same talking points from 2005 still apply, because all McCain has done is dust off Bush’s policy — which Americans overwhelmingly hated — and embrace it as his own. McCain insisted this morning, for example, that younger workers have an “opportunity” to move their money from the Social Security system into private accounts. But since Social Security is a pay-as-you-go system, and McCain insists he won’t cut benefits, McCain’s numbers don’t make a lick of sense. We don’t need to “twist” anything — McCain’s plain words are demonstrably ridiculous.
Thankfully, all of this has not gone unnoticed by the Obama campaign. Obama spoke today in Columbus, Ohio, where he hammered away on the topic of the day.
“Now, John McCain’s ideas on Social Security amount to four more years of what was attempted and failed under George Bush. He said he supports private accounts for Social Security – in his words, “along the lines that President Bush proposed.” Yesterday he tried to deny that he ever took that position, leaving us wondering if he had a change of heart or a change of politics.
“Well let me be clear: privatizing Social Security was a bad idea when George W. Bush proposed it. It’s a bad idea today. It would eventually cut guaranteed benefits by up to 50%. It would cost a trillion dollars that we don’t have to implement on the front end, permanently elevating our debt. And most of all, it would gamble the retirement plans of millions of Americans on the stock market. That’s why I stood up against this plan in the Senate, and that’s why I won’t stand for it as President.
“But Senator McCain’s campaign went even further a few months ago, suggesting that the best answer to the growing pressures on Social Security might be to cut cost-of-living adjustments or to raise the retirement age. I think there is another option that is fairer to working men and women. We have to protect Social Security for future generations without pushing the burden on to seniors who have earned the right to retire in dignity.
“Here’s where I would start. Right now, the Social Security payroll tax is capped. That means most middle-class families pay this tax on every dime they make, while millionaires and billionaires are only paying it on a very small percentage of their income. That’s why I think the best way forward is to first look to adjust the cap on the payroll tax so that people like me pay a little bit more and people in need are protected. That way we can extend the promise of Social Security without shifting the burden on to seniors. And we should exempt anyone making under $250,000 from this increase so that the change doesn’t burden middle-class Americans. This means that 97% of Americans will see absolutely no change in their taxes under my plan – 97%.
“Now, there was a time when John McCain thought this wasn’t such a bad idea. When he was asked a few years ago whether he could see himself lifting the cap on the payroll tax, he said, “I could.” But today, he’s attacking me for holding the very same position.
“You know, John McCain has proposed a series of debates, and I’m looking forward to having them. But when it comes to Social Security, he might want to finish the debate with himself first.”
Anyone who thinks McCain has a clue on this issue just isn’t paying attention.