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What About Social Security Was McCain Calling a "Disgrace?"
July 09, 2008 3:23 PM
At a town hall meeting in Denver, Colo., on July 7, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., responded to a question about young people not anticipating ever receiving Social Security, and his remarks have invited Democratic salvos.
"Many of the proposals that are being created for people of my generation no longer include Social Security because of the belief it will not be there," the questioner asked. "Tell me how you plan to fix it."
"I'd like to start out by giving you a little straight talk," McCain responded. Under the present set-up, because we've mortgaged our children's futures, you will not have Social Security benefits that present-day retirees have unless we fix it. And Americans have got to understand that. Americans have got to understand that we are paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers in America today. And that's a disgrace. It's an absolute disgrace, and it's got to be fixed."
Continued McCain: "Now, how do you fix it? Now, how do you fix it? You fix it by reaching across the aisle, and you say to the Democrats, 'Sit down with me at the table. Sit down with me, the way Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill did the last time that Social Security was in deep trouble, and that was way back in 1983.'"
You can watch some of the exchange HERE.
**
So…what exactly was McCain calling a disgrace?
The sentence immediately preceding what McCain called a "disgrace" referred to the fact that "we are paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers in America today."
The liberal muck-raking website Talking Points Memo has taken McCain's remarks at face value, with Josh Marshall writing: "It's really a disgrace? That's how the system was designed to operate. And it's served as financial bedrock of retirement security in this country for going on a century."
Others have weighed in. Former Federal Communications Commission chairman (and McCain nemesis) Reed Hundt writes in a blog posting titled "Why Isn't This News?" that "If Senator McCain doesn't want payroll taxes to fund Social Security (as has long been the case), then how does he propose to pay for it?"
Adds Todd Gitlin: "Let's be generous to McCain and assume that the 'that' which is an 'absolute disgrace' is the impending zero point toward which Social Security is purportedly tending. (If he really means that the disgrace is young workers subsidizing retired workers, he really is an economic idiot. The subsidy is the very bedrock, the principle, the logic, the elementary idea of all insurance. Period.) But still, even then, where is scrutiny of the claim that Social Security is in jeopardy? When Bush made such ridiculous claims in 2005, he spent all his political capital and then some. Why is McCain getting this pass? When the Straight Talk Express makes so many such stops, when does it become the Straight Talk Local? Why isn't this A Story? The Gaffe of the Week? Breaking News? A Clip to Be Rebroadcast Endlessly?"
Today the Democratic National Committee will host a conference call to, in the words of the DNC press release, "blast John McCain for saying the way Social Security is funded, the very essence of the program, is a disgrace."
Those doing the blasting will be AFSCME International President Gerald McEntee, the Center for Economic and Policy Research co-director Dean Baker, the DNC's Brad Woodhouse and other Social Security experts and advocates.
**
I asked the McCain campaign what Sen. McCain was referring to with the word "disgrace."
McCain spox Brian Rogers says that "the disgrace is our failure to fix the long-run imbalance in Social Security -- a failure of leadership evidenced by our willingness to kick to problem to the next generation of leaders. He’s also describing the looming and increasing demographic pressures confronting the Social Security system and Washington’s utter failure to address it."
Rogers points out that in an April 2007 speech in Memphis, McCain said:
"I'll fight to save the future of Social Security and Medicare. I won't leave office without doing everything I can to fix the fiscal problem that, more than any other, threatens our future prosperity and power. No problem is in more need of honesty than the looming insolvency of our entitlement programs. No government program is the object of more political posturing and spin than Social Security and Medicare. Americans have the right to know the truth, no matter how bad it is. So here's a little straight talk: the current Social Security system is unsustainable. Period. A half century ago, sixteen American workers supported every retiree. Today, it's just three. Soon, it will be only two. If we don't make some tough choices, Social Security and Medicare either won't be there for our children and grandchildren or we will have had to raise taxes so dramatically to support them that we will have crushed the prosperity of average Americans."
So, according to the McCain campaign, the senator was trying to explain how the system works but cut it short before describing the demographic pressures – as he did in the August 2007 speech.
That long-term imbalance and Washington’s failure to fix it is the disgrace, he meant to say, the McCain campaign suggests.
What say you?
- jpt
July 9, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (49)
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So I have been putting into the system for the last 45 years, to help those who came before me, and now I find out that I have been doing a disgraceful act. So let's privitise it and create another whole industry of taking my money and hand it to a large corporation, for a small fee of course, not related to performance, naturaly, with out any risk on their part you understand.
The disgrace is paying for Mccain's life tiem congressional retirement,and healthcare.
Posted by: Thinking | Jul 9, 2008 5:20:02 PM
The disgrace is that this Ponzi scheme wasn't dismantled years ago and totally privatized.
The municipal workers in Tx who found a way out of it retired with twice what anyone else gets and you young folks will be totally screwed thanks to the dems..not the republicans, the dems..LBJ put SS trust funds under general revenues so he could fund his "war on poverty". That's where the blame lies from day one and continues today.
This sytem can STILL be privatized, turned into the type of system the congress and all the Fed employees enjoy, it can be done with an age indexed turn over over a 20 year time span,but again, the dems won't do it because they will lose control of you, you won't be dependant on their nanny state...I hope you kids wake up and send these democrat bums packing. You will save everything they worked for.
Ask a pol if he'd run by saying he will take 13% of every dime you earn and give you some back if you make it to 70, but keep it if you don't, I dare them to answer.
Posted by: Seawolf | Jul 9, 2008 5:12:17 PM
Let me remind everyone -- George Bush got the same MSM PASS. How scary is that?!
Posted by: hang | Jul 9, 2008 5:07:19 PM
Again, all we get from MSM is minor coverage on the failings of John McCain. Has anyone lost their seat on the McCain plane yet? Has anyone in MSM got kahoonies enough to speak up at a level strong enough to get the attention of the country? We have another incompetent running for president, and he's getting a pass!!
Posted by: hang | Jul 9, 2008 5:06:02 PM
What I find interesting is that conservative McCain had absolutely nothing of substance to say when asked how he would fix the problem. Just the same old "straight talk" and "reaching across the aisle" line. No substance at all. And this man is running for President. Incredible.
Posted by: Bill | Jul 9, 2008 4:57:06 PM
trust me McCain doesn't know what he is saying when it comes to this stuff.
Jake you know that early in the campaign he was HORRIBLE at economics questions...
and he is still horrible...
I'll have a beer with him...but I don't want him in the white house.
Posted by: dl | Jul 9, 2008 4:44:16 PM
RE: Jesse Jackson apologizes for comments critical of Obama
Obama thinks he is the political Jesus, and it is only natural for him to lecture the black community on his morals learned in the past 20 years from his good reverend Wright.
Jesse? Jesse should go back to school, attending trinity.
Posted by: skinny dog | Jul 9, 2008 4:34:23 PM
Oh, I'm sorry. Did I say McCain proposed no solutions to the demographic problem he calls a "disgrace." Then I mentioned immigration? Maybe that is why he favored amnesty for all those payroll taxable aliens with their many children.
Maybe once he is done dropping cartons of Marlboro's on Tehran, Mc Cain can send a pack of smokes a day to seniors to solve Social Security.
Hope v. Hapless
Posted by: ricky | Jul 9, 2008 4:34:22 PM
Don't believe what I actually said, but rather, my campaign's rear-end covering explanation.
God forbid anyone in the fawning media ever questioned Sen. McCain about the words that actually consistently come out of his mouth.
Why question John McCain's specific proposals? It's not like this election is important at all. The country is in economic shambles and the stock market just had the worst month SINCE THE GREAT DEPRESSION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why bother? McCain's a hero--POW--honor--maverick--straight-talk, blah blah blah.
Posted by: Jeff C. | Jul 9, 2008 4:25:52 PM
Iran is a "grave threat", according to BO today, after it tested long range missiles. Let it be recalled: Iran is not a threat because its size is much smaller than USSR, according to BO just one month ago.
According to BO, his position on anything, everything has been the same, only you less-educated people are cynical about what he says.
Posted by: skinny dog | Jul 9, 2008 4:24:31 PM
Hey Carolyn-- doubt Sen. McCain receives SS benefits as he has worked his entire life in gov't service which is exempt from paying into and receiving fron the fud.
Posted by: Robert in Cleveland | Jul 9, 2008 4:16:20 PM
geevil, that is not straight talk, but crude misunderstanding, straight ignorance of how social security works. Old McSame does not know economy.
Posted by: BKMC | Jul 9, 2008 4:14:32 PM
BO will tag his health care to the pot of social security.
Posted by: skinny dog | Jul 9, 2008 4:12:27 PM
Why don't you politicians quit raiding the fund for your pet projects, otherwise get rid of it.
Posted by: Ben Straub | Jul 9, 2008 4:08:23 PM
What I say?
I say that Social Security need not be in peril in the United States. The demographics favour your system, whereas they run counter to the systems in Europe.
Reason: the US will witness strong demographic growth. Many workers will be added to the working people's column, and there will be enough of them to keep paying for Social Security.
UNLESS, of course, you allow crooks to grasp into the cookie jar. Crooks like George W. Bush, and his Republican cronies.
Leave the system the hell alone and start acting responsibly.
Posted by: Kaj | Jul 9, 2008 4:07:46 PM
oh and jake love how you drag talking points memo through the dirt
lol
at least they report,
i see stories for obama i see stories against obama,
i see stories for mccain i see stories against mccain on TPM
on here i see stories against obama
i see stories against mccain but also against obama, and i see stories that could go further and dig deaper and actually go after mccain, but they stop short with stupid question like your last line
do some stuff on mccain and maybe youll be elevated to the spot of muck raking blog
Posted by: bhrandon | Jul 9, 2008 4:04:47 PM
Obamamama above outlined the easy fixes for social security that have been knocking around for several years. I've read the same in news publications and blogs for awhile. Shame on the current administration for not providing leadership on this issue by not taking congress to task for not fixing this already.
Posted by: truetuft | Jul 9, 2008 4:04:43 PM
OK, here's the best example of a massive problem with a McCain "reach across the aisle" fix. Immigration.
How's that working out for ya?
Wouldn't even vote for his own bill now, he says. Flip. Flop. Hippity. Hop.
Posted by: ricky | Jul 9, 2008 3:59:11 PM
What a joke. John McCain's tax release states that HE RECEIVES SOCIAL SECURITY !
NOW THAT IS A DISGRACE!! OLD FOOL!
Posted by: Carolyn Cunningham | Jul 9, 2008 3:57:59 PM
Reagan "fixed" social security by doubling the payroll tax - which Reps and Dems alike then spent to finance everything BUT the Social Security Trust Fund. So there's plenty of blame to go around. (In fact Reagan raided the fund to "balance" the budget upon the advice of none other than Alan Greenspan.)
How do we fix it? I think Obama is probably right with his plan to raise the payroll tax on higher income earners, but unless that money goes into the famous Gore-proposed lockbox, Washington will just spend it frivolously. I don't agree with his plan that seniors earning under $50,000 pay zero income tax as those lost taxes are just more money to be made up by other taxpayers or cuts in services.
I also disagree with plans to privatize SS. The proposed 2% invested in personal accounts won't amount to much considering the need to finance ever-increasing lifespans - plus the plans I've heard guarantee a minimum rate of return regardless of how stocks perform. If we can't afford the current system, then how can we afford to finance failed investments? At any rate, McCain with a Dem Congress will never get privatization passed, so I'm not too worried about it.
It's a mess, that's for sure!
Posted by: HoosierSue | Jul 9, 2008 3:56:24 PM
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