Bullying on Social Security: Cheney on the Loose

In an earlier post about Bush's assault on Social Security, I wrote about raising the caps on income which is taxed for SS purposes. As it stands, only the first $90,000 is charged the FICA tax, and so someone making that amount pays as much into SS as someone who makes $1 million or $50 million. Bush, of course, wants to establish private accounts, taking a third of the revenue out of the SS system, which not only puts that money at risk in the markets, but also does nothing to improve the solvency of the program, whereas raising the cap does.

So, in light of this, here's an AP story on a Republican poll, the results of which were presented to GOP leaders. First,

The heart of President Bush’s plan for Social Security, allowing younger workers to create personal accounts in exchange for a lower guaranteed government benefit, is among the least popular elements with the public, Republican pollsters told House GOP leaders Tuesday.

Got it? "Personal" (read as "into the hands of Wall Street") accounts are not favored; in fact they rank at the bottom. Now this,

Despite the general resistance to higher taxes, there is very strong support for exposing higher levels of income to the existing levy, the pollsters wrote.

In spite of all the hype, well, bullshit and sleight-of-hand that these crooks have used to try to bamboozle the public, the people know that Social Security works, is not in "crisis," and can easily be made solvent for the next 100 years by a very simple and, for the vast majority of Americans, painless solution: raise the fucking cap. And the Republican response to this?

Almost immediately, House Republican leaders and an anti-tax group denounced the idea of raising the cap and chided the president for not excluding the possibility.

And Bush, in his bubble of unreality, according to Bloomberg reacts accordingly by sending Cheney out to lie and bully for him on Social Security privatization the way he pushed on national security matters.

Bush is mounting a full-court press for private accounts, the keystone of his plan, as polls show rising skepticism about the president's proposals.

Keep in mind that this is happening despite the fact that Bush himself admits that privatization is useless for fixing solvency. In February,

President Bush, on a road trip to promote private Social Security accounts, acknowledged Friday that his proposal would not by itself fix the future financial problems of the retirement program.

But he's sending Bullyboy Dick out to push it anyway.
It doesn't matter how much the public may not like the plan, the Bushits are going to do everything in their power to get their way, and part of their pattern is to wear down the opposition by lying and lying and lying again, and when Cheney is put on the road for something, you know they've rolled out the big artillery for dissembling. Just review his statements about WMD and Iraq-Al Qaeda connections even after it was declared even by Bush that they didn't exist.

What is scary is that today on the NY Times politics page, there are no stories about Social Security (but these is one about a woman becoming the White House chef!), which makes me wonder if the issue will be taken out of the public eye by the mainstream press to give room to Cheney to railroad the propaganda program for awhile as the public gets refocused by the media on Michael Jackson or whatever pointless issue can be used for distraction.