. . . it apparently takes a village idiot . . .

[tk2kewl]

Presentation only a fool could love by Paul Vitello

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.

More at link

[bullimiami]

1. you want to personalize it?

take my half completely out of the hands of the thieving government. let ME keep it, invest it, waste it, do with it what I want to. NO? of course not because its not about making social security safer or better or more personal for US its about skimming a profit from the trillions that is currently unavailable to the bankers and stock houses.

and when they turn out to be crooks? we will all be FUCKED. because not even the government will have the money to cover this fiasco.
It will be the great depression all over again.

[Journeyman]

2. This must surely rank as madness. . .

From the memo:

"Your audience doesn't understand financial jargon ...

and yet, they want to turn us lose so the "financial harpies" can feast on our gullets and gullibility.

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. It would take an Idiot to believe that 4% saved for 20 years or

so in "conservative" stocks and bonds would equal the till-death payout one receives in the current system.
The rw is on the verge of killing it's most hated program, and chimp is doing it smirking all the way. Social security scare 2005 = WMD scare 2003.