Archive for May 19th, 2008
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Obama Pulling Out the Old Social Security Scare Tactic
May 19th, 2008
You can count on Democratic presidential candidates to haul out Medi-scare or Social Security scare tactics every presidential year.
While speaking to a group of people in an assisted living center (read senior citizens) Obama claimed John McCain would reduce their Social Security payments or cut back on their cost of living raises if elected.
Obama said McCain would push to raise the retirement age for collecting Social Security benefits or trim annual cost-of-living increases. Obama has rejected both ideas as solutions to the funding crisis projected for Social Security in favor of making higher-income workers pay more into the system.
“We have to protect Social Security for future generations without pushing the burden onto seniors who have earned the right to retire in dignity,” he said.
McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds accused Obama of making “misinformed partisan attacks.”
“John McCain has been clear about his belief that we must fix Social Security for future generations and keep our promises to today’s retirees, but raising taxes should not be the answer to every problem,” Bound said.
We all agree something has to be done to protect the Social Security retirement program or there will be none for our children and grandchildren. But, having a certain percentage of one’s already withholding amount put into a private plan (such as what the government workers get) is not going to take away from those already on Social Security or about to be on Social Security.
Instead of allowing private citizens to get the same kind of retirement benefits federal and state workers get the Democrats would rather the senior citizens of this country get barely enough to subsist if that is their sole income.
If you put money into a 401(k) plan at a young age and don’t touch it you will have a comfortable life after retirement. That’s all President Bush ever proposed: allow the younger workers to put 1 or 2% of their FICA withholding into a private plan managed by the government (that’s an oxymoron) and the rest would go into Social Security.
With people working past age 65 now, and a lot because they want to, raising the age for full social security benefits to 67 or 68 or even 70 is not so unreasonable. FDR used the age of 65 because back when he was in office the life expectancy was not that high and he figured that would keep the program solvent. Life expectancy has risen and so should the age for full social security benefits. You still have the option of taking reduced payments at age 62, and how many people do you know who actually wait until they are 65? I suggest the government employees be required to contribute to social security or private citizens be allowed the same benefit as a government employee.
This scare tactic has been proven false time and time again since Reagan first ran for president, and Obama is using the same bag of tricks. Let’s just hope our senior citizens are smarter than they were 28 years ago.
Shame on Obama for scaring the senior citizens this way.
