LAT: Bush Shifts Tone, Praises FDR's Social Security

[DeepModem Mom]

Bush Shifts Tone, Praises FDR's Social Security
By Peter Wallsten, Times Staff Writer


SHREVEPORT, La. — Even as he campaigns to alter a central achievement of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's tenure — a public retirement safety net — President Bush is speaking in increasingly positive terms about his legendary Democratic predecessor.

"Franklin Roosevelt did a good thing when he set up Social Security. It has worked," Bush told an audience this morning in Memphis, Tenn., the first of the day's two Southern stops designed to build support for changing the system.

"And so the discussion today is not to get rid of Social Security. The discussion today is to build on what Franklin Roosevelt put in place, to understand that things have changed since his presidency."

Bush's embrace of the man whose legacy critics say he would undo reflects the troubling state of play for today's White House amid growing public skepticism of Bush's ideas on transforming the popular program that FDR designed as a social compact between generations....

***

It also reflects Bush's view of his own place in history — as a conservative with ambitions to scale back liberal, New Deal policies and replace them with his "ownership society," emphasizing personal wealth rather than big government....


http://www.latimes.com/business/la-031105bush_lat,0,4517255.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[Gloria]

1. He is putrid.

eom

[Cha]

2. Will he EVER go

and Fuck Off?

[HockeyMom]

3. Yep

He'll certainly have a lot more people owning their own business; selling paper flowers on street corners. "Buddy, can you spare a dime?" "Paper flower?"

[applegrove]

4. And because he has never put his plan down on paper.... he will get

away with it.

And he never admits he is wrong.

[whistle]

5. What a two-faced hypocrite, he's talking to the depression era...

...new dealers so he is pandering to their long held beliefs. The display signs that the seniors should be showing are "Bushit!".

[area51]

6. Desperation.

I smell the desperation of GW Hoover.

---

"Prosperity is just around the corner." -- Herbert Hoover
"The economy has turned a corner." -- GW Bush

Herbert Hoover = GW Bush

Neither man cared about the Depression their economic policies created.

[Erika]

7. U.S./FDR wanted all Americans basic needs met

FDR would roll over in his grave if he knew Bush, the rich man's president, is claiming to have concerns for the needy. It's not about $ as Bush envisions, it's about a great country taking care of its own needy.

That's a humanitarian/Christian concept that Republicans are incapable of grasping.

[MissWaverly]

8. ownership society?

how are we going to be able to own anything if Bush takes away our pensions to give away in the form of non-taxation of the top 1% and corporate fat cats!

[wtmusic]

9. Rove is a fucking genius

I will have anyone's head on a platter who disagrees with me.

This is the perfect strategy. Make it look like you're building on the policies of a great Democrat. If there is a chance in hell Rove will find it.

Evil bastard.

[w4rma]

12. I think this is Karen Hughes' spin, not Rove's. (nt)

[wtmusic]

13. Why do you say? n/t

[w4rma]

20. She just returned and it's a total flip-flop in spin. (nt)

[wtmusic]

23. Good point

I think they tap her for the warm and fuzzy talking points

[asjr]

14. I had hoped we would never have to look at or listen to Karen

again. She is a slime bucket who thinks she is something the cats covered up. Something is afoot.

[nookiemonster]

18. Damn, I can only hope it's "damage control".

This fucker has to go down. NOW!! I want my country back!
:mad:

[Guckert]

10. He wants to get back to the "good old days".

elderly walking the streets for looking handouts
Kids hungry for food and shelter
people living in their wagons in "faith based" food lines
wire hangers
replacing African Americans with gays to the back of the bus
corporate profits skyrocketing

[DesEtoiles]

11. F L I P F L O P

[merwin]

17. more like C O N M A N

[no_to_war_economy]

15. flippitty floppitty

* is doing nothing but splitting the GOP

I wish him all the best in the endeavor

[KittyWampus]

16. Karen Hughes Is Back In Town

[bpilgrim]

19. GOLDEN opportunity to get a CHANGE that actually gives us MORE SECURITY

like FDR did... we can say bush is on-board as well :evilgrin:

peace

[shanti]

21. "ownership society"

yep, it's back to feudalism alright! the haves and the have nots and nothing inbetween. :grr:

[mtholly]

22. Shouldn't the subject be somewhat automatic if one replies to a post?

Well, whatever.

It doesn't seem like the aromysticrats will win this round. It's awful hard to argue with success, even if your arguments are largely targeted to the black-hole-approximating vacuous crowd.

If you win a constituency based on greed, it's unlikely they'll uncement the only thing giving them independence from their care givers, else how could they afford the widescreen hdtvs that have become a life priority?

where else will they gain a reprieve from the specter of accountability that haunts them? is this a political question? can you easily carve the debate between republicans and democrats? the very idea is absurd. the flintlocks of washington should have swept any such notions away centuries ago.

listen my people and you shall hear...

awake.

resist.

defend.

we are the united states.

shall we let our govenment devolve on foreign investors? or shall we retain the rights that our fathers bought with their blood?

what is your blood worth? or the blood of your families? if we don't stop this foreign incursion, won't they be those less able than us, trying to stop it after we're gone? we will be mocked as those who let the sweetest fruit of all be trampled underfoot in the scramble for drifting, dolcet dollars.

soon, few will be left who know the pride that goes with being the first to die in the fight against freedom. soon, the same jackdaws who stole freedom from europe will steal it from my most beloved sands, grass, concrete, mountains, glass, and people. soon, our children will know the shame that comes from lording numerical and logistical superiority over those who proffer noone any harm, and most probably would advance the human condition if given the opportunity.

awake.

resist.

defend.

you are the united states.

this post is infalmmatory and subversive, but only in the best traditions of the giants who carved a swath though the ancient mire that we might revere and emulate them. stand up and be counted.

godspeed.

[liveoaktx]

24. I'll bet James Roosevelt will have something to say about that

He's been very vocal about Bush hijacking his grandfather's good name

James Roosevelt on Social Security-INSURANCE versus INVESTMENT