The Scare-Seniors Card

There They Go Again. Just like clock work the democratic candidate pulls out the scare card and explains how the big bad Republicans are going to destroy social security. Nevermind the fact that over the next 75 years social security is facing an enormous shortfall. The dems always point and say there is a 2 trillion dollar transistor cost to any of these proposed plans (Ed. after which social security would be fully funded up front) and there is no way to cover that transition. They insist on keeping their collective heads in the sand and say we only need to tweak it around the edges and it will be fine.

Matt Moore writes about Kerry’s baseless attempt to bash the Bush Social Security plan.

It was only a matter of time. For a year and a half Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has gone to great lengths to avoid discussing Social Security. Yet now, with just a touch over a month to go before Election Day, Sen. Kerry has made the trip down to Florida to scare seniors about Social Security reform. After all, this has been a recurring feature of every presidential campaign in recent memory.

Citing a new “study” by one of his campaign’s advisors, Kerry attacked President Bush’s Social Security reform proposal, charging it would cut benefits for seniors and would amount to a windfall for Bush campaign contributors on Wall Street. To borrow a phrase from Kerry’s own talking points — this charge is wrong. He is wrong when he tells seniors Bush will cut their benefits and he is wrong when he says investment-based Social Security reform will bring huge administrative costs.

— Matt Moore is senior policy analyst for the National Center for Policy Analysis.