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Senator McCain on Social Security,
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.
Since most of us know that each generations pays for the next generations benefits then it isn’t too much to expect that someone that wants to be president should know it too.
That is truly an amazing quote. It’s like he’s saying, “I just found out that taxes come from people…that’s a disgrace.” It betrays a really quite scary lack of knowledge about basic government…. I know he’s not into this kind of stuff, but … it would be hard not to know about the intergenerational financing of Social Security. It’s the biggest government transfer—1/5 of the damn budget. I guess the quote suggests he knows about the financing, but the way he says it, it sounds like he just found out and is shocked.
I can’t imagine how this will play if it goes at all viral. Maybe Social Security is no longer the third rail, but to call it a disgrace ought to be seen as over the top. On the other hand, maybe people will agree with him. (Jared Bernstein, the director of the Living Standards program at the Economic Policy Institute)
Someone suggested that McCain meant to say that the senator is afraid that future generations will have their benefits reduced because there is some great shortage in Social Security funding on the horizon. I can only say wow that if that is what wanna-be-prez McCain means, then that is what he should have said and had the numbers to back up his claims. Hilzoy has more here, There He Goes Again…
Besides the problem that McCain seems to be shocked to find out how Social Security is financed there’s his history of flip flopping on privatizing SoSec a la his hero George Bush. Its called the Enron plan. Muffy and Bob Middle Class America invest their previous SoSec taxes into Enron. Then when they’re 67 and living on your doorstep waiting for a sandwich we can create a fund for those that will inevitably make bad choices and become a burden on the rest of society – McCain will have passed on by then, but if he is still around one wonders if he thinks that will be as disgraceful as the social insurance safety net we have now.
Unlike regular criminals Republicans just fade from the spotlight for a while and resurface with a new job and six figure salary with another crony, McCain aide: DOJ scandal ‘nonsense’
Steve Schmidt, the new man in day-to-day charge of the McCain presidential campaign, stoutly defended his lobbying and PR firm’s hiring of Tim Griffin, a former prosecutor who figured in the U.S. attorneys firing scandal.
Tim Griffin, a protégé of Karl Rove, went to work for Mercury Public Affairs after quitting as interim U.S. attorney in Little Rock, Ark. in June 2007 when it was disclosed that his predecessor, Bud Cummins, had been fired to create an opening for Griffin.
Steve Schmidt is one of those guys who doesn’t mind sleeping with dogs and getting fleas. Since he’s a major player on the McCain team McCain must think the same way. The DOJ scandal was not and continues not to be simply a matter of partisan politics. All the attorneys that were fired were Republicans,
A POLITICIZED DEPARTMENT: The consideration of political affiliation in the hiring of career employees is forbidden by both federal law and internal Justice Department rules. Since May, Glenn Fine, the Inspector General of the Justice Department, has been investigating “allegations regarding improper political or other considerations in hiring decisions within the Department of Justice.” He has much to investigate. In the past four months, at least two now-former Justice Department officials have admitted to “crossing the line” while screening potential employees at the Department. In May, Monica Goodling, the former Justice Department Liaison to the White House, conceded during testimony before the House Judiciary Committee that she had “taken inappropriate political considerations into account” while hiring and that it was “illegal” to do so.
So Schmidt, Tim Griffin and John McCain don’t know the meaning of the word “illegal”. Contrary to right-wing spin the DOJ scandal was never as simple as AGs serving at the convenience of the Whitehouse.
The Long Goodbye 