McCain’s Social Security Alternative Universe
Josh Marshall watches John McCain talk about Social Security with Wolf Blitzer and is astounded:
McCain fabricated an alternative history of the 2005 Social Security battle in order to create a new tax talking points. According to McCain, and he repeated this again and again, “the [Social Security] talks broke down because the Democrats insisted as a precondition that we raise taxes.”
That’s very weird. First, there were no Social Security talks. And the Democrats didn’t make any demands to raise taxes. They didn’t even propose raising taxes. As many of you know, I followed that debate extremely closely. And McCain just made this stuff out of whole cloth. Really bizarre.
Right. What happened was that Bush proposed privatizing Social Security. Democrats said “no.” Then Bush said there was a crisis and we needed to respond by privatizing Social Security. Democrats responded that there was no crisis and privatizing Social Security would be a bad idea. Then Bush called for everyone to get together and reform Social Security in a bipartisan way. Democrats said they were open to holding some bipartisan negotiations about the projected long-run financing of Social Security if Bush would take the concept of privatization off the table. Bush refused, and suddenly, albeit accurately, stopped proclaiming the existence of a crisis. At this point, many Republicans who backed Bush’s privatization effort started pretending they’d done something else.
24 Responses to “McCain’s Social Security Alternative Universe”
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October 22nd, 2008 at 5:39 pm
What is it with McCain and preconditions?
October 22nd, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Does anyone know what “painting the passports brown” refers to in the first verse of Bob Dylan’s Desolation Row? The first and last lines of the first stanza seem to refer to the Duluth lynching in 1920, and the third is probably about Sarah Palin (Dylan is a genius) but I can’t figure out the second line.
They’re selling postcards of the hanging
They’re painting the passports brown
The beauty parlor is full of sailors
The circus is in town
October 22nd, 2008 at 5:50 pm
That’s funny, I heard talks broke down because Obama showed up with some of his terrorist pals from Chicago and they had to evacuate the capital.
October 22nd, 2008 at 5:53 pm
It wasn’t Democrats that insisted on raising taxes to pay for privatization; it was math.
October 22nd, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Also it was time for Bush’s quarterly vacation.
October 22nd, 2008 at 6:40 pm
In addition, the great SS swindle of 2005 seems to have weakened the GOP. Fear of Bush operative retaliation or lack of adinistration support in future campaigns,the more moderate GOP Congressmembers largely rode the fence, expressed “concern,” or favored a commission. Their waffling was a factor in Dems grabbing swing districts in 2006 and harming the GOP brand permanently with seniors. Ironically, losing the issue strengthened the GOP’s loony right by helping purge the GOP of its less hard-line Reps. It’s great to see some loons (cough, Michelle Bachmann, cough) getting taken down this cycle for their hubris and over-reach. There’s so little push back in their own party anymore that they truly don’t see that there can be honest, respectful poliitical dialogue. Social Security “reform” thus continues to erode the GOP’s status.
October 22nd, 2008 at 7:02 pm
good question.
… consequently …
October 22nd, 2008 at 7:05 pm
#7 was in reference to #2.
not sure what happened to the link, but, trying again, here it is:
October 22nd, 2008 at 7:05 pm
looks like the link button is broken …
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=2266
October 22nd, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Thanks RBF, you are my sunshine.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:19 pm
I also recall a great effort of GOP hacks, flacks and the White House explaining that Social Security is unfair for Blacks. Then polls showed great popularity of Social Security, exactly as it is, in places like Alabama. Then GOP Congresscritters started to be very lukewarm toward the idea.
October 23rd, 2008 at 12:16 am
losing the issue strengthened the GOP’s loony right by helping purge the GOP of its less hard-line Reps. It’s great to see some loons (cough, Michelle Bachmann, cough) getting taken down this cycle for their hubris and over-reach.
Satisfying as it is to see the loons get threatened with a loss of their seats, I can’t help but have a tinge of sadness… surely the best thing for the Democrats is to back the Republicans into a corner where all they have left as public faces of their party are the hard-core lunatics and dull-witted extremists. If Bachmann and Musgrave are tossed out of office but Chris Shays retains his seat, we’ll have people like Shays making the case for the Republican party to the American people on the cable news shows. Surely things are better for the Dems when it’s Bachmann making the entire Republican party look like a bunch of nutcases.
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