In Nevada we have a significant senatorial election approaching. Senate Leader Harry Reid is currently about 10 points behind the Republican challenger Sharron Angle. Although this new darling of the Tea Party (and now the RNC) has been in local and state politics for over a decade and has some clear ultraconservative ideas, ever since the primary the RNC has been trying to makeover her image so she will be more palatable to the mainstream. For example, there is much ado about whether Sharron Angle is for or against ending Social Security. Here is the actual quote from “Fox and Friends” (6/14/10): Steve Doocy: “Perhaps it's a misinformation or mischaracterization, but some have said that you are out to get rid of Social Security. That's not true right?" Sharron Angle:”Well that's nonsense. I have always said that we need to make the lock box a lock box. Put the money in there for our senior citizens. They came here in good faith, paying into a system that Harry Reid has put an IOU in. For 24 years, he has been raiding Social Security, and what we need to do is personalize Social Security and Medicare, so that the government can no longer raid it” (http://video.foxnews.com/v/4238236/fox--friends-exclusive).
Ok, now here are two concerns: First, nobody really and truly knows what "personalize Social Security" means but most of us think it is code for privatize. Note that this interview is after the RNC makeover. She now has professionals "handling" her and making sure she avoids saying something considered too “out there” for the mainstream; hence the extreme soft peddled leading question of Doocy: "that's not true, right?" Second, in her pre-makeover interview with Jon Ralston of the LV Sun (5/25/10), she said in reference to Social Security that "going forward we need to phase it out" (http://www.lasvegassun.com/videos/2010/may/25/3974/). FYI, in both of these links the actual quotes are at about 4:00 minutes into the interview.
As of 6/27/10 the latter quote is consistent to what is posted on the “issues” page of her official webpage where she talks about transitioning out of Social Security: “Social Security and its attendant Medicare are broken and bankrupt systems because we, as voting citizens, have allowed congress to transform these systems from insurance programs to and entitlement programs. The government must continue to keep its contract with seniors, who entered into the system on good faith and now are depending on that contract. Free market alternatives, which offer retirement choices to employees and employers, must be developed and offered to those still in their wage earning years, as the Social Security system is transitioned out. Young workers must be encouraged to investigate personal retirement account options (http://www.sharronangle.com/issues/).
Now I don't think it is slamming her to look at these actual quotes. I think some, perhaps many, of her original supporters agree with eliminating Social Security and Medicare, so there is no reason to sanitize this or mislead people on this issue. But that is what the RNC wants to do. I totally support her desire to make the Social Security/Medicare "lock box" a real "lock box" but I am equally opposed to phasing out or privatizing Social Security or Medicare.
This whole craze of privatization, in my opinion, has been a disaster. It has led to layers upon layers of federal bureaucratic regulators monitoring the private sector. Most local agencies and non profits are drowning in federal paperwork and oversight so that they have little time left to do what they are supposed to be doing with the money. Meanwhile many big fat cat no bid private contractors manage to keep one step ahead so they can steal us blind. Just look at the overruns in Iraq and what private contractors stole from us and ask the troops on the ground what a joke these contractors are.
I am in my mid-fifties and I certainly want the SSI fund that I have paid into all of my adult life to be there when I retire. I love the idea of a “lock box” to keep the dirty paws of Harry, Sharron, or whoever off my hard earned Social Security and Medicare checks. Let the private contractors go somewhere besides the federal government for a bailout. If we take the private sector middlemen out of the picture and have government employees do the necessary work, we can drastically reduce the size of the federal government. I don’t want to be phased out just when I am nearing my phase in.
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