Social Security Debate Moves to Va. Suburbs: Activists .. Challenge Davis [View All]

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Social Security Debate Moves to Va. Suburbs
Activists, Residents Challenge Davis

By Michael Laris
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 27, 2005; Page A08

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56435-2005Feb26.html

There was placard waving, intense wireless messaging by political activists and a scholarly slide show of retirement projections and fiscal forecasts.

But at the heart of a carefully orchestrated face-off over Social Security in Fairfax City yesterday was an extended public back-and-forth between Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.) and a persistent 74-year-old real estate agent named Teddy Goodson.

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"I'm older than Social Security," she began, challenging Davis to distance himself from Bush's idea of allowing younger workers to rely in part on private accounts within Social Security. Workers would swap some government guarantees for the possibility of higher returns and more control.

"We've had that," said Goodson, a Fairfax City resident. "It didn't work. People lost their retirement. It melted away in the Great Depression. It really is going to destroy Social Security as a program."

The headline should have been:

74 Year Old Fairfax Resident Bitch Slaps Rep. Tom Davis, R for Messing with Social Security

A once progressive County Board Chairman, Davis has moved to the dark side. He is not used to being challenged. Well, guess what, it's that time of his career. God bless this retired realtor for standing tall in the face of corporatism and the theft of social security.