MSNBC/AP: White House memo: Pitch Social Security doom

[mountebank]

Rove aide strategy: Convince public system’s ‘heading for iceberg’

The Associated Press
Updated: 8:37 p.m. ET Jan. 5, 2005

WASHINGTON - The success of President Bush’s push to remake Social Security depends on convincing the public that the system is “heading for an iceberg,” according to a White House strategy note that makes the case for cutting benefits promised for the future.

Calling the effort “one of the most important conservative undertakings of modern times,” Peter Wehner, the deputy to White House political director Karl Rove, says in the e-mail message that a battle over Social Security is winnable for the first time in six decades and could transform the political landscape.

The White House confirmed the authenticity of the e-mail but did not have an immediate comment.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6791950/

So, was this memo leaked? The article wasn't really clear...

[ogradda]

1. so this is what it has come to.

they out and out tell us they are going to lie to us to get what they want. hard to get any more brazen than that.

[Cobalt Violet]

4. The sheeple are going to end up supporting this.

They always fall for these lies.

[electric-eye]

15. There must be a limit somewhere

there must be

a point at which they'll awaken

when it hits home, that's the limit

and its happening

[RobertSeattle]

2. What a classic

1. Construct a phoney crisis
2. Come up with your equally phoney solution
3. Declare Victory
4. Pat yourself on the back

[jayctravis]

21. Bush did this in 1999

I remember they started talking down Clinton's economy. We were probably in a natural dip, but they said we needed tax cuts since the economy was good.

Then the economy got bad, and we were told we needed tax cuts. The Republicans created a recession.

[wabeewoman]

49. I remember this

For months they were saying the economy is getting bad, is bad, we're in a recession. At the time I thought, if they keep saying it, it will happen. I couldn't understand why they were doing it at the time.

[Ernesto]

44. Duh

Is this why people are dying in Iraq today?
(sarcasm alert for the challenged among us)

[Lorien]

48. 5. sit back and blame clinton

when everything goes to sh*t.

[RobertSeattle]

52. Good point

Duly noted!

[Cobalt Violet]

3. These repugs are monsters.

[lovuian]

5. I think Bush will not see People fight so hard as for Social Security

If they don't let it fall on their heads!!! I want to see the Republican Party sign for its destruction and put us fiscally in insurmountable debt and say its ok the books say we are just fine


Enron this is America's creative bookeeping Enron!!!

[Robbien]

6. MSNBC knows we know they have this memo

Will it change how they report the social security gloom and doom.

Nope, they do not care that we know they are tools. Heck, they just hired Tucker.

[Carni]

7. I figured that was what they were up to!

I heard on the radio yesterday that they were planning on removing the income cap that people pay up to on SS each year (what is it now?) and that by and large future recipients would be getting on the average 54% less than they would under this current system. The guy sitting in for Mitch Albom's show said all this (I don't know what his name is) I also don't know if what he said was accurate, but if it was, the plan is so horrendous that no one will want it and the public would obviously start screaming to do away with SS altogether.
I think the ultimate goal of bush is just to get rid of the whole system.

[nashville_brook]

16. norquist has been saying this for years... starve the programs to death

next stop, public education.

[librechik]

8. Busted!

wish it could make a difference.

[thoughtanarchist]

9. wow, I'm suprised. that one must have slipped through...

You don't often see stories like this from major media outlets...

The public is being misled.

Methinks this story needs something of an echo chamber effect to spread awareness or it'll fizzle in the shizzle.


:wow:

[Rainscents]

11. Neo-Cons are all BASTERS!!!!

I cannot stand every last one of them!!! They are all crooks!

[GainesT1958]

14. I think we need to take our own "baster"...

And use it on them while they roast over an open fire!:eyes:

B-)

[Old and In the Way]

10. Why do I feel I'm in the back seat of a coupe with a drunken mad driver,

who's either deaf or oblivious or both, careening down the road toward a certain date with an unwanted destiny?

[jdj]

12. but all of a sudden I am hearing that some republicans are

uneasy about Bush's plan.

there is something fishy going on.

[GainesT1958]

13. So what's "Chip" Rove going to do next...

Have Mel Gibson produce a commercial invoking the Titanic hitting the iceberg to sell his point?:mad:

They'll find ELABORATE ways to lie to us about Social Security's solvency, and about their plan to demolish it. It's their plan that deserves to sink like the Titanic did, not Social Security!:grr:

This scheme of theirs needs to be sunk in Congress, and the sooner the better!

B-)

[mike_c]

17. nah, this'll never work....

That's like suggesting that Congress would fall for the notion that Saddam Hussein somehow hid huge stockpiles of WMD from the U.N. inspection teams, or that he was somehow responsible for the 9/11 attacks, or.... Oh. Shit. I've got sixteen more years or so until I can retire at "full benefits."

[BadGimp]

18. remember Karl Rove's lost and found PowerPoint slides????

The discovery of that CD put their strategy "in the water". They did not deny it.

Same game plan - different battle..

Same disinformation strategy - and again the information is true..these guys are brilliant!

1) let em know the lie (leaks work)

2) lie (with the help of a compliant media)

2) restate the lie till it becomes true in the minds of the target sudience (media agian)

It's happening all over again.

Pay attention people.

[Robbien]

20. Yes, it does look as if they are putting that plan into play again

Probably because they were not getting enough support for their privatization, they are opening their old bag of tricks.

Without a free media those old tricks work, over and over again.

[brokensymmetry]

19. And will anyone care?

I fear they will not.

Which means * has a green light to gut another program. :(

[two gun sid]

22. Why is this news?

This is their MO for every policy they know the majority of the population would not support. Remember the energy crisis we were facing in 2001? Bullshit, they just wanted to drill in ANWR. The WMD? Bullshit again, they just wanted to invade Iraq. And on and on and on.

[WCGreen]

23. The Republicans have hated SS since

the New Deal...

right from the start, they wanted to keep people tied to the money interst so that the rich could have a giant thumb on the workers.

Oh well, I'm really really gald I don't have any kids.....

[FreepFryer]

24. in other words... "Strike fear into people that they'll die penniless...

so we can rip them off."

Absolutely inexcusable (throw it on the growing pile).

[The_Casual_Observer]

25. The lies about Iraq/WMD were just a trial run for this one

This is the really big one they have been waiting for. They have confidence now, since they saw how the public was stupid enough to believe the WMD shit. They have to be stopped this time.

[jsquared]

26. This is the lead in the online Wall St. Journal, so it isn't going away.

I think this has been leaked for a reason. In the WSJ article, Gingrich and Kemp warn that this policy will be electoral disaster for the Republicans. The difference between Bush's planned disinformation campaign on this versus, say Iraq or the environment, is that this directly affects how people live. Most may be asleep, but they are not stupid about their livelihood.

[WCGreen]

27. They may have leaked it as a way to gracefully back off

this campaign promise.....

Wishful thinking, I guess...

[ally_sc]

34. so it was leaked..just came over for a few

hmmm...

[Guaranteed]

28. Geez, where have we seen THIS before?

The white House screaming "We're all gonna DIEEEEEEE!" at the top of their lungs...

[Solly Mack]

29. Like it's going to make a difference. I bet a memo on torture

coming out would cause Americans to take notice...oh wait...NOT!

[Bluebear]

30. "I'd rather have a beer with W!!!!"

That's what it seemingly has come down to.

[Solly Mack]

31. I couldn't believe the first time I heard someone say that

What idiots!

These same people went from "hold president to higher standard than myself" under Clinton, to "let's get drunk with Dubya"...

gawds

[Ferretherder]

32. No, Solly, I think...

...the majority of 'murkins have all decided to have a LOBOTOMY with 'dubya'!

[Solly Mack]

33. Funny...yet sad and true

:(

[corksean]

39. If I had to have a beer with Bush...

I'd rather have a full bottle in front of me than a full frontal lobotomy. He can have that.

[DS1]

37. I'd rather have a beer with Dubya, because

I'd have to drink Dubya's beer for him, right? Am I right or am I right? :evilgrin:

Of course, he "could" be off the wagon ;-)

[Solly Mack]

41. You're right, DS1 ........ he's off the wagon :)

and he'd make you pay for the beer to boot!

[atommom]

46. I still can't believe I heard people saying that. The truth is that W

wouldn't lower himself to having a beer with anyone who isn't one of his "business associates." That's just as well, because if I saw him sitting across the table from me, I probably wouldn't be able to keep my beer down!

[hollowdweller]

35. What will be the Democratic talking point? Call GOP "Chicken Little"?

[ally_sc]

36. email congress again...that's the only thing that will help....

let them know how counter productive this would be. bush needs to something about the economy. if people had good jobs there would be more pay in for fica...now...no jobs , no payin. it all sucks.

[Lorien]

50. We don't have "talking points"

we only react to theirs. :eyes:

[Massachusetts]

38. The Average American

better pay attention (turn off the t.v and put down the rag paper)and get some OUTRAGE goin, cause these Aholes will pick our pockets clean.

I want OUR country back!:mad:

[MarianJack]

40. Thank GOD Our Glorious pResident...

...is gonna perteck us from hummasechils gittin' married, Janet Jackson's tits and Nicolette Sheridan's towel!!!

[otohara]

42. It Will Be Like Attack Iraq BS

we heard - danger, imminent threat, old people will die

[Swamp Rat]

43. The Jeenyus is at work - this is his trademark device.

[rodeodance]

45. slimballs!!

[Cocoa]

47. all the media whores got the memo

they're right on board with the iceberg thing.

[Overseas]

51. Kick, kick and kick it again.

We knew this phony crisis was being pumped up -- glad to have the evidence in their own words.

[Whoa_Nelly]

53. Welcome to the US Fascist States

From the article:
Democrats ‘Party of the Past’
“We have it within our grasp to move away from dependency on government and toward giving greater power and responsibility to individuals,” said Wehner, the director of White House Strategic Initiatives. He called the Democratic Party the “party of obstruction and opposition. It is the Party of the Past.”

Main Entry: fas·cism
Pronunciation: 'fa-"shi-z&m also 'fa-"si-
Function: noun
Etymology: Italian fascismo, from fascio bundle, fasces, group, from Latin fascis bundle & fasces fasces
Date: 1921
1 : often capitalized : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition
2 : a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control <early instances of army fascism and brutality —J. W. Aldridge>