In a statement released today, Brian Jones of the RNC, has accused “MoveOn.org and the Democrats” of “shamefully meeting President Bush’s bipartisan effort to strengthen Social Security with fear-mongering and scare tactics.”
The ad in question from MoveOn.org can be viewed on their website. It is simply laughable that this little ad is being called fear-mongering by the RNC. After all the RNC are the people who brought us, “there is a crisis”…”we’re fighting terror” and “there are WMD’s in Iraq.”
It appears from the statement by Jones, that there have been “malicious, anonymous phone calls regarding Social Security to various Congressional districts.” Now, granted there are quite a few efforts by various groups (including the DNC) for those who are concerned by the Bush administration’s insistence that constituents that “rewriting the Social Security law would be cheaper and less risky than leaving it alone.” However, it does certainly seem a bit overboard to insinuate that the phone calls from concerned citizens are “malicious.”
In an attempt to turn the Democrats own words back on them (something so very Rovian), Jones stated, “MoveOn.org and the Democrats should understand that no problem--especially one as significant as the crisis facing Social Security--has ever been solved by a scare campaign.”
Even as many Republicans have expressed doubt about Bush’s efforts to reform Social Security, the RNC seems to be blithely spinning their agenda regardless of the claims by so many that privatization could cause great harm to so many low-income families.
In 2003, Social Security was the largest source of income for seniors, accounting for nearly 42 percent of their income on average, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute in Washington. Six out of 10 seniors get more than half their yearly income from Social Security, according to AARP.
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