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We Said No, Dammit! Social Security in GOP Crosshairs Again [1]

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Date: 2023-02-13  

Republicans Are Targeting Social Security Again

Reaching back into the misty memories of the Bush II administration, (how I miss seeing the sneering face of Darth Cheney on a daily basis...) one may recall the Republican push for privatizing Social Security. Treasury Secretary John Snow was tasked with taking the show on the road, with a tour of many cities throughout the US where citizens (and voters!) could learn of the amazing and miraculous powers of Wall Street, and how all of us who earn a paycheck were missing the boat to security and prosperity. Here’s a refresher from the Internet Way-Back Machine:



www.tampabay.com/...



Snow even visited my city in Montana. I joined perhaps about 100 others that day to line the street where the Secretary would be en route to the venue where he was to speak. We were there to protest, but especially we were there to educate (or at least inspire others to consider learning more about the issue before falling for what many of our signs referred to as “Bush’s Snow Job” on the American people.) My sign was less subtle, and simply said “Social Security is For All Of Us — NOT For Wall Street!”



The pitch was essentially a two-pronged approach. First, Social Security was in trouble, because it would eventually face funding shortages if something isn’t done. Sound familiar? (Somehow, there never is much talk about how the Social Security Trust has been raided like a cheap piggy bank for many years, or how simply raising the cap on the amount of income subject to Social Security taxes might change the math.) The second prong pointed to the exhuberant performance of the stock market (this was during the time when the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were driving up prices on things like plywood and concrete and many corporations were posting big numbers and the real estate market was going ballistic because anyone with a pulse could get a home loan far beyond their means). The Republicans implied that the money workers were putting into Social Security was missing out on the higher returns found on Wall Street. An important subtext was the ever-popular (at least among Libertarian-leaning folks) idea of “personal responsibility” and having “control over our own future” rather than letting the government do… well, anything.



To sweeten the deal (for the most reliable voting demographic, anyway), the Bush proposal also pledged to make no Social Security cuts for those who are age 55 and over. (That’s the part where the leopard promises not to eat your face but has nothing to say about the faces of your children or your neighbors.)



There were certainly plenty of conservatives who bought it, but their enthusiasm may have been tempered somewhat about 16 months later in the autumn of 2007, when the mortgage-backed securities market turned out to be made largely of air and Wall Street experienced losses not seen since 1929 at the start of the Great Depression. Those of us who didn’t buy the Snow job were feeling a pretty strong sense of validation (although for many of us this was tempered by the loss of our jobs, homes, retirement security, etc.) when we said “Boy, it’s a good thing our Social Security dollars didn’t get privatized, isn’t it?!”



That lesson was hard-learned, and many are still suffering from the economic fallout even today. So, of course it must be about time for the Republicans to once again start pitching the idea that Social Security should be privatized. And we’re hearing many of the same selling points. It’s encouraging to see President Biden taking them to task, and I hope he continues to hit them hard on this issue and that every Democrat will join him (whenever they’re not kicking them over the Dobbs decision). We all should all be talking about this issue.



For many of us, that means having individual conversations about what’s at stake. We need to make it clear to anyone who will listen that even if we ourselves are not yet old enough to receive Social Security benefits, most of us are beneficiaries already because Social Security is what’s making sure that we’re not financially supporting our parents. If you can pay your mortgage (or rent if you missed the homeownership train...), save for your own retirement, send your kids to college, etc. that’s because your parents are largely able to meet their own needs. How many of them could do that without Social Security (and Medicare)? Hint — For 1 in 3 older Americans, Social Security is all or nearly all of their income, and for 60 percent of them Social Security makes up at least half of their income. In other words, even though Social Security always gets talked about within the context of “our seniors” (even the President does this), this isn’t a senior citizen issue — it’s an all of us issue. It’s time to change the narrative to reflect that reality. If we’re successful, maybe we can avoid the Snow job once again.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/13/2152625/-We-Said-No-Dammit-Social-Security-in-GOP-Crosshairs-Again

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