Agency [Social Security Administration] polled public on Social Security

[Dickie Flatt]

http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/politics/11419191.htm

While politicians debated saving Social Security, its federal overseer spent $2 million to poll the public. The Clinton administration wanted to know if people thought the program saved older Americans from poverty. The Bush administration refocused questions on its private investment plan. ...

The Social Security Administration first hired the Gallup Organization in 1998, when Bill Clinton was in office. The survey changed markedly in 2003, when George W. Bush began his re-election campaign.

The Bush administration removed from the Clinton-era survey two statements that at least three-quarters of those polled had agreed with: "Social Security benefits play a major role in keeping many senior citizens out of poverty" and "Social Security is the largest single source of income for most elderly Americans."

New questions sought to determine when the public thought the federal retirement program would go broke and whether people knew anything about Bush's plan to let workers invest part of their Social Security payments in private accounts.

[NYC]

1. Keeps senior citizens out of poverty.

That's the most significant thing about Social Security.

...The Bush administration removed from the Clinton-era survey two statements that at least three-quarters of those polled had agreed with: "Social Security benefits play a major role in keeping many senior citizens out of poverty" and "Social Security is the largest single source of income for most elderly Americans."

Bush removed the statements that reflect what is most significant about Social Security.

[MO_Dem]

3. This bunch of repigs DOES NOT CARE

To them, so what if a bunch of people starve or go homeless, "they was poor folks", so no great loss for the powerful of the world.

[NYC]

5. I know that.

I sincerely, deeply, thoroughly know that. We are as expendable as the cannon fodder they send to war.

They are milking us for all we are worth.

[MO_Dem]

6. Sorry if I sounded preachy,

I believe it's knowing these things that makes us Democrats. The calousness of the republicans just gets me so riled up! I know a lot of people whose only income is social security, mostly widows who don't even draw anywhere near the top limits. It makes me so angry that these "goody-two-shoes" republicans don't even want to know how many there are in that situation.

They probably would have the nerve to tell me that I'm the calous one for not worrying about the likes of "Kenny Boy" Lay, etc.

Thank goodness for Democratic Underground! Someday, we shall overcome!

[NYC]

7. You didn't sound preachy at all.

You just reminded me of how much I know how little they care. It's terrible the way they treat American citizens and residents. I call it slash and burn.

[Rose Siding]

2. Byrd is so good at zooming in on the issue at hand

snip>
"I have real concerns about any administration using public funds to push its agenda," said Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee. "It doesn't matter whether that push is through polling or propaganda."

[yorkiemommie1]

4. and yet, in this month's AARP

magazine, which featured seniors whose only income is SS, there was a profile of a senior who had *'s picture up on her wall.... says 'thanks for all your help'. :shrug:

[zann725]

8. In watching the FDR special on History Channel now, the inception of

Social Security by FDR is being discussed.

What a Dem! And shortly after, he overwhelmingly won his Presidential election (losing only two states)!