Presentation only a fool could love (Paul Vitello)

[tk2kewl]

http://www.newsday.com/mynews/ny-livit034133358feb03,0,545934.column

Boys and girls, we won't be talking about the plan to "privatize" Social Security anymore. The word privatize might scare you.

President George W. Bush's Social Security proposal - which would shift the source of about half of every citizen's Social Security income out of a guaranteed government entitlement system and into an uninsured stock market portfolio - is now a plan to "personalize" your retirement benefits.

"Personalization suggests increased personal ownership and control," to quote from a talking points memo issued last month by the House and Senate Republican Conferences.

The memo, signed by Senate Conference Chairman Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) and House Conference Chairman Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio) was designed to help members keep on message with the president, who launched a campaign swing today to begin selling his Social Security overhaul plan. The memo was leaked and has been widely quoted in the press. (If you want to see it for yourself, boot up and punch in: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/gop.socsec.strategy.memo.pdf)

"Privatization," on the other hand, says the memo, "connotes the total corporate takeover of Social Security ... and turns off listeners, who are very concerned about corporate wrongdoing."

"Talk in simple language," the conference chairmen suggest. "Your audience doesn't understand financial jargon ... Your audience doesn't know how trillions and billions differ. They know these numbers are large but not how large, nor how many billions make a trillion. Boil numbers down to 'your family's share.'"

If it takes a village to raise a child, it apparently takes a village idiot to meet the expectations that Republican conference members have about us.

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