re: Democrats and Social Security Reform

Regarding Stephan’s comment, how unpatriotic of me to suggest that there’s bribery going on in D.C. What was I thinking?! I suppose when I go to Las Vegas next month they’ll tell me there’s gambling in Vegas, too!

I should have used the language I was taught in my sophomore political science class, that politics is “the art of compromise.” Kinda like a Monet, or a Rembrandt, or a Picasso. (Or just maybe, like the “artist” who photographed a crucifix in a jar of urine).

Share

2:58 pm on January 24, 2005

re: Democrats and Social Security Reform

Tom, you said, “Here’s a possibility: Democrat opposition will be bought off by promising them a VAT large enough to finance some kind of socialized health care, their Big Pipe Dream.”

Don’t you think that language “bought off” is awfully hurtful, divisive, and cynical? How dare you impugn the motives or our public-spirited statesmen-leaders?

Share

2:40 pm on January 24, 2005

re: Democrats and Social Security Reform

Congressman Thomas’s comments on race and Social Security are mostly likely just as Stephan says they are: the average black American lives a shorter life than the average white, and therefore gets disproportionately shafted by Social Security. This is one of the points Peter Ferrara made more than twenty years ago in his Cato Institute book on Social Security privatization. I wouldn’t be surprised if this book, or Ferrara’s voluminous other writings on the topic, are the source of the congressman’s comments.

Here’s a possibility: Democrat opposition will be bought off by promising them a VAT large enough to finance some kind of socialized health care, their Big Pipe Dream. Why wouldn’t Dubya go for this? He championed socialized pharmaceuticals, and he will become increasingly desperate for a legacy apart from the disaster . . . . er, I mean, National Greatness Conservativism, in Iraq.

Share

1:39 pm on January 24, 2005

re: Democrats and Social Security Reform

Lew, yes, I agree. Thomas also seemed to endorse a VAT to pay for social security, and had a number of economically illiterate comments in addition to the one you noted–such as his comment that we should try to raise revenue not from income, but from some other type of tax that does not harm productivity/jobs.

Share

12:02 pm on January 24, 2005

re: Democrats and Social Security Reform

Stephan, I found this comment of Thomas’s to be interesting: that the higher welfare costs of SS reform should be funded in part “by our allies, since we have paid their bills since WWII.” (Quotes from memory.) Yes, such a benefit to be militarily occupied by the US.

Share

11:30 am on January 24, 2005