Bush still wants to "privatize" social security

Woa! Is the president reading his party's own focus group reports? Apparently, Bush is still promoting the partial privatization of social security:

The plunging stock market and recent corporate implosions won't stop the White House from driving ahead with plans to overhaul Social Security to allow personal investment accounts.

President Bush's views haven't changed, spokesman Ari Fleischer said Wednesday.

"The president believes that is the right long-term policy," Fleischer said. "He thinks it's good for young people if they want to pursue this on a voluntary basis."

Funny that Fleischer would still be talking about this. Didn't Bush and Rove read the leaked GOP focus group report I blogged yesterday? Most relevant:

• Democrat attempt to label GOP position on Social Security as favoring "privatization" presents serious threat. GOP, Members, and candidates must fight back against this label.

Republicans say "personal investment funds", Democrats say "privatization". Guess which term has greater traction with the general public? It's the same as the Republican's use of "death tax" -- it's not entirely accurate, but there's political virtue in simplicity.

Congressional Republicans have been warned they are vulnerable on the issue. The report even underlines the word "serious" in "serious threat". So we know the authors are serious when the say "serious". Seriously.

But Rove didn't get the memo. And Bush didn't read it (it had more than three sentences and no pictures of caterpillars). So, GOP candidates must now explain why their president wants to "privatize" social security as the markets tank and the social security trust fund is spent on other things. Brilliant. Welcome to the post-Karen Hughes White House.

Posted July 19, 2002 12:01 AM | Comments (2)