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In Which Ross Douthat Examines Social Security
I slightly disagree wtih Pierce to this extent: if we allow the GOP to endlessly spread bullshit demagoguery about SS, and never fight back in this meme war, they *can* eventually convince enough people to act against their own interests. After all, it used to be that even mentioning fucking around with SS was called 'the 3rd rail.' And yet, here we are, arguing about it with one of the two major parties....
Ross Cardinal Douthat yesterday decided that the greedy olds are ripping him off, and he and Chris Van Hollen are not going to take it any more. Or something. In doing so, he masterfully delineated the actual case that conservatives have been making against Social Security since the moment it passed in 1933 — namely, that the biggest problem with the program is that it, you know, really works.
...I also would point out that Social Security didn't "promise post-retirement returns," it delivered them, every last dime of them, and it pretty much eliminated abject elderly poverty in this country, which I guess is something we can't have, either.
...Unless we all get sold out, and the government starts listening to the likes of Ross Douthat, Social Security recipients pretty much get everything that they put into the system while they were working. The CBO says the trust fund is solvent through 2038, and some minor tweaks — like lifting the cap, which Young Master Douthat declines to mention — we can push the event horizon even deeper into the future. Also, ask a member of the "working class" — How does this guy use that phrase without his tongue turning to flame? — how they'd like to keep Grandma and Grandpa in the den downstairs because they're both 79 and have no fking income. I suspect we'll be hearing about the ant and the grasshopper very soon
...Where in hell does this cosseted layabout get off lecturing people about "work and thrift and upward mobility"? It's like listening to Ann Romney talk about carpet samples. The people who actually have to practice these virtues — which is to say, those who are not the beneficiaries of ideological affirmative-action in our nation's great newspapers — also would just as soon not die of starvation in the cold when they hit 70. They also would like not to have to work when they are 80. If this outrages His Eminence, he can go whistle.
But, eventually, we get around to what's really going on. Social Security is a government program that works. It is a government program that people like. Douthat's conclusion that the Republicans can gain back the loyalties of "the middle class" by turning it against Social Security is the funniest political advice since Jonah Goldberg presumed to give the GOP "Negro lessons" last week. By all means, Ross, go out among the many "middle class" workers of your casual acquaintance and tell them that it's Social Security, and not the obscene imbalance of our tax code, that's screwing so many of them. Persuade them that it's really their parents who are bleeding them dry. Bring them over to the party that just nominated Mitt Romney by the force of that particular argument. Leave your dental records with me.
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/ross-douthat-social-security-112612
...I also would point out that Social Security didn't "promise post-retirement returns," it delivered them, every last dime of them, and it pretty much eliminated abject elderly poverty in this country, which I guess is something we can't have, either.
...Unless we all get sold out, and the government starts listening to the likes of Ross Douthat, Social Security recipients pretty much get everything that they put into the system while they were working. The CBO says the trust fund is solvent through 2038, and some minor tweaks — like lifting the cap, which Young Master Douthat declines to mention — we can push the event horizon even deeper into the future. Also, ask a member of the "working class" — How does this guy use that phrase without his tongue turning to flame? — how they'd like to keep Grandma and Grandpa in the den downstairs because they're both 79 and have no fking income. I suspect we'll be hearing about the ant and the grasshopper very soon
...Where in hell does this cosseted layabout get off lecturing people about "work and thrift and upward mobility"? It's like listening to Ann Romney talk about carpet samples. The people who actually have to practice these virtues — which is to say, those who are not the beneficiaries of ideological affirmative-action in our nation's great newspapers — also would just as soon not die of starvation in the cold when they hit 70. They also would like not to have to work when they are 80. If this outrages His Eminence, he can go whistle.
But, eventually, we get around to what's really going on. Social Security is a government program that works. It is a government program that people like. Douthat's conclusion that the Republicans can gain back the loyalties of "the middle class" by turning it against Social Security is the funniest political advice since Jonah Goldberg presumed to give the GOP "Negro lessons" last week. By all means, Ross, go out among the many "middle class" workers of your casual acquaintance and tell them that it's Social Security, and not the obscene imbalance of our tax code, that's screwing so many of them. Persuade them that it's really their parents who are bleeding them dry. Bring them over to the party that just nominated Mitt Romney by the force of that particular argument. Leave your dental records with me.
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/ross-douthat-social-security-112612