Kerry Uses Scare Tactics with Social Security

October 17, 2004

The AP reports that Senator Kerry was fear mongering on the campaign trail today saying that President Bush is planning a “surprise” second-term effort to privatize Social Security that will devastate the middle class.

This really stinks. President Bush has long talked about privatizing Social Security and even alluded to it in the third debate in Tempe, Arizona. There’s no surprise. But this scare stuff is just below the belt and irresponsible. Remember how Warren Rudman and other deficit hawks used to go around the country saying we had to take the partisanship out of entitlements and tackle this problem, bemoaning both parties’ lack of political courage to take on Social Security, etc.?

Well, John Kerry doesn’t just lack the courage (and integrity) to take on the issue. He’s demagoguing against George Bush’s efforts to tackle the problem. And while some have predicated there would be transitional costs associated with partial privatization, and more risk involved, others have said the opposite.

Everything with Kerry is dramatic, and every difference he has with Bush escalates to a charge that the president is lying or misleading the public. Kerry is like a walking disaster-flick producer — trying to turn every little (or big) difference in opinion into a scandal. The irony is that the true scandals all come from him and his side of the aisle.

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