Con lying about SS, again!

[blueheeler]

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/larrykudlow/lk20050217.shtml

The writer of this article states;
"The Democrats make yet another huge mistake in their opposition to Social Security reform through personal savings accounts that can be invested in financial markets. If you take them at their word, Democrats must think investment markets are risky gambles. The voting public thinks differently. A recent Zogby poll shows that 61 percent of voters under 30 and 58 percent of voters under 50 favor personal savings accounts. (Those over 55 won’t be affected by any Social Security reform legislation.) And as a trade-off to cure personal saving accounts, likely voters, by 61 percent to 23 percent, favor a proposal to hold down future benefits to the inflation rate rather than wage indexing"

And when I started looking to see what really was going on, I found this from Zogby;

"New Zogby polling analysis claims “substantial majority” for privatization –
but ignores contradictory data and uses results from flawed polls.
By Hans Riemer
February 6, 2003
Zogby International, a national survey research firm, recently released a deeply flawed analysis of public
opinion data about Social Security, claiming to show that a “substantial majority” of Americans support
partial privatization. The report, called Public Opinion and Private Accounts, was written by John Zogby
and four other Zogby International researchers and published by the Cato Institute, a libertarian
organization that advocates complete privatization of Social Security.
For several years running, the Cato Institute has hired Zogby International to conduct public opinion
surveys about Social Security. These polls, however, are pre-determined to show public support for
privatization. In Public Opinion and Private Accounts, Zogby International promises to “address and
clarify the record of public opinion research with respect to Social Security and support for plans to allow
private retirement accounts.” But Zogby International fails its own test – badly.
Zogby’s “substantial majority” of Americans favoring privatization cannot be found outside of Cato
Institute polls. This is because the Zogby-Cato polls misrepresent crucial facts about Social Security and
the costs and trade-offs of privatization. For example, they fail to mention that private accounts would
reduce Social Security’s guaranteed benefits – a key aspect of the policy debate that the public must
consider in order to have an informed position on the issue.
While claiming to address and clarify the record, Public Opinion and Private Accounts is replete with
serious omissions and distortions of that record and provides negligible insight into where the public
really stands on Social Security.
Zogby avoids crucial issue of benefit cuts
According to Zogby International, “A careful examination of public opinion polling on this issue shows that
a substantial majority of the American public supports proposals that would allow them to invest a portion
of their Social Security taxes through individual accounts.”
I
n fact, this is not true at all."