Social Security Reform

[Nashyra]

Just heard on MTP that the Dems are saying "No private accounts" We have to come with a way to "frame the issues" that make it clear that we want to keep SS for the benefit of the people, all the people. How about something like "Private SS accounts GAMBLE for all citizens", red and blue states alike, then go on to scare the hell out of the public with very simple language about why it is so bad.

[GR]

1. Yes, Reid Showed He Had A Spine...

Social Security is not IN CRISIS and dems must make that clear everytime they speak about it...

Republicans are trying to destroy Social Security because they know it is something the people love and credit democrats with creating. They can't have that, now can they...

It also makes ordinary folks more independent in their old age and less subject to the rule of their corporate and fascist government masters.

[Demit]

6. Your phrasing is the truth--R's trying to destroy Soc Sec, not reform it.

We have to NOT use their meme (Social Security "Reform"). It more properly is Social Security Abolition. They are attempting to abolish it, not reform it.

[crasmane]

2. It's just another false crisis.

Like gay marriage, illegal immigration to the US and the liberal menace from Hollywood to Christian society.

1. insist that the New Deal or Great Society derived program is in a crisis. Crises don't have to be real, remember, this is the reality-creating community.
2. insist that the crisis may only be solved through neoconservative means. Reality factory in full operation.
3. give the corporate set another rack of tax breaks, incentives, and sweetheart deals to create a mock version of the program or an active role in administering an altered version of the program in crisis.
4. once the program has been altered toward chaotic structure and haphazard administration, eliminate it.

I didn't even need a crystal ball to tell me that one.
The neocons may create reality, but given their interest-driven mode of decision-making and creativity, they're so PREDICTABLE.
Damn them to hell.

[blondeatlast]

8. It's Norquist's plan for "starving the beast."

You nailed it; once you know the modus operandi, which doesn't take much effort, it's crystal clear.

We need to expose what they are doing at every opportunity.

[floridadem30]

3. I just received an email from act for change on this and sent an email

to my reps with reasons not to privatize social security.

[No Mandate Here.]

4. We already have private accounts

What does IRA stand for? The system is NOT broken, why mess with it?

Oh yeah, the commissions aren't high enough for Wall street brokers. But, are we supposed to feel sorry for them?

[blondeatlast]

5. The stock market is a gamble for the little guy period.

That's all we need to say.

Another tack and this would make a GREAT commercial: Big government (personified by an elephant looking type actor, big cigar, pinstripe suit, RED tie, cute, dumb blonde by his side) playing craps with OUR FICA investment.

Any questions???

[Nashyra]

7. I would love to see that on TV

That is a message that most would understand, because it would SCARE them.

[thecrow]

9. I would just have to point to Frist's campaign fund disaster

When he lost *so much money* in the stock market and couldn't repay his campaign loan.

[Yupster]

10. We just need to put out our own reform proposal

People don't want privatization, but they know something has to be changed.

The only way privatization can become law is if there is no Democratic alternative.

If it's our plan versus their plan, ours will win.

If its their plan or keep it the same, then theirs will win.

You can't beat something with nothing.

[tokenlib]

11. The financiers have millions to lie in ads....

..what do we have to fight them? Maybe I'm getting too discouraged about this. But the greedy bastards are poised to push this through with the same effort they used to stop health care reform under Clinton. Unless the groups like MoveOn, PFAW, and others raise money for an ad war--I think we're done. Too many people tell me the system is based on IOU's as if that makes it OK for the repubs to destroy it. They have bought the lies.

Damn the democrats like Moynihan who made the private account proposals "respectable". Damn them all to hell!!

[quaker bill]

12. I support "private accounts" with "private" money

Everyone has the right to go down to Charles Schwab and open one tomorrow.

How about this:

The republicans don't trust you with your money. Instead of giving you the money, they want to take it away from you with taxes and make you put it into a brokerage account. It is just another form of the "nanny state" except this time their friends on Wall Street make all the profits.

Out gun them with their own rhetoric I say.

The point of social security is "security". It is not a retirement plan, it is an insurance policy in case you die young and your children need help, or your other retirement plans don't work out.

[Wiley50]

13. How SS needs to be reformed is

that people like me who paid in for 30 years,who become disabled ( like my med records and dr. letters prove) shouldn't have to wait 4 years for a hearing before a judge that can approve my claim.Like I have.

Wiley

[InvisibleBallots]

14. we need two or three points and STICK to them

repeat them over and over. "Republicans want to gamble Social Security on Enron". "Republicans are getting paid by Wall Street to privatize Social Security" - repeat, ad nausem, over and over and over again.