social security

Charles Krauthammer wants you to know two things: There's no "lockbox" for Social Security and there's no such thing as a free lunch. He's wrong about Social Security, but first things first: Let's do lunch.

Here's Krauthammer last Thursday, rebutting White House Budget Director Jack Lew: "There is no free lunch." And here's Krauthammer in 2004, in a piece called "Tax and Drill": "There is no free lunch." And in 2009, writing about the health care bill: "...(I)n medicine, as in life, there is no free lunch."

And here's Krauthammer in June of 2007, saying that politicians will never support a gas tax because it would be "too honest and open an acknowledgment that there is no free lunch." He says in the same piece that ethanol is "another free lunch," and bemoans Congress' desire to "perpetuate the fantasy of the tax-free lunch." (The piece was called "The Tax-Free Lunch.")

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We're working with some of the best state-level bloggers from around the country to help us tell the truth about key economic and social policy issues, and to draw the contrast between the rhetoric of the right and the progressive alternative. Please visit our CAF State Blogger Network page to see more. more »

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In our efforts to form a more perfect Union we look to the Constitution for guidance for how we might shape the form and function of Government; many who seek to interpret that document try to do so by following what they believe is The Original Intent Of The Founders.

Some among us have managed to turn their certainty into something that approaches a reverential calling, and you need look no f more »

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Marketing works. If you put a lot of money into repeating a marketing message over and over and over, eventually people's brains absorb the message. Conservatives have put a lot of money and effort into convincing people that there is something wrong with Social Security, and that effort is paying off. more »

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The phrase "Moment of Truth" first appeared in English in Ernest Hemingway's Death in the Afternoon. It was originally a Spanish expression for for the final sword-thrust in a bull-fight, the one that finishes off the bull after the matador is done taunting and tormenting him.

Remember that whenever you hear about "The Moment of Truth Project," the latest public relations venture from the Social Security-slashing Pete Peterson crowd. It could be el momento de verdad for your future financial security.

Orwell's Children

If the phrase also reminds you of the reality-twisting "Ministry of Truth" from Orwell's 1984, that's appropriate too. A highly-financed network of consultants, ex-government officials, and politicians has been deployed to mislead the public on basic, unequivocal truths about Social Security, whose$2.6 trillion dollar trust fund could bankroll a lot of tax breaks for the wealthy. All it takes is a campaign to mislead and confuse the public.

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"Clueless." "Stupid." "Middle-class welfare." Sometimes a guy who likes facts and figures gets slapped in the face by reality, and apparently today's my day. Several recent stories showed me how some of these "austerity economics" advocates in Washington really feel about the middle class. I guess I always knew it intellectually, but these stories made me feel it on a visceral level. They let me know me exactly what these politicians and pundits feel toward me,my family, and the people I grew up with:

Contempt.

We're not talking about lofty and imperious disdain, either. This isn't the old-school,"look down your monocle with a lofty air" genteel antipathy once practiced by the gentlemen at the club. We're talking about complete and utter contempt, a repugnance so white-hot it feels like it could melt your face off.

Debts of a Salesman

How else are we to interpret remarks like these from John Boehner, the Speaker of the House of Representatives? "People in Washington assume that Americans understand how big the problem is," Boehner said of Social Security, "but most Americans don't have a clue." Boehner added, ""I think the president shrank from his responsibility to lead. He knows the numbers as well as we do."

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I'm writing a series of posts as a blogging fellow for the Strengthen Social Security Campaign, a coalition of more than 270 national and state organizations.

FactCheck.org gets it wrong on Social Security:

Here's what they say:

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"You've got a country that is stupid, a government that is stupid," Fiscal Commission Co-Chair and Fmr. GOP Senator Alan Simpson said, in an interview on CNN this past Monday morning. His words sum up the feelings of a band of elitist budget hawks, who blame ordinary Americans for our current economic and budgetary problems. Call it the real "Blame America First" crowd.

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We're working with some of the best state-level bloggers from around the country to help us tell the truth about key economic and social policy issues, and to draw the contrast between the rhetoric of the right and the progressive alternative. Please visit our CAF State Blogger Network page to see more. more »

More »»

Call it speaking untruth to power. In the article, “Democrats Deny Social Security’s Red Ink,” FactCheck is guilty of distorting the truth, and the politicians it criticizes get it right. Click here for a chart comparing the article’s claims with the truth, and a graph showing Social Security’s surplus. Click here, here and here for more comprehensive takedowns of the article.

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