Romney on Hannity
Updated: Audio Linked; Perry Snaps Back, Noting Romney Said Social Security Run Like a Criminal Enterprise

Audio.

Key line:

"I am for Social Security. I want to save Social Security. It is an essential safety net for the American people. And number two, it is terrible politics. If we nominate someone who the Democrats can correctly characterize as being opposed to Social Security, we will be obliterated as a party," Mitt Romney said on Sean Hannity's radio show.

And Perry's not done with the debate, either.

ast night, Romney said, “Under no circumstances would I ever say, by any measure, it’s a failure. It is working for millions of Americans.”

However, in his book “No Apology: The Case For American Greatness”, which was published just last year, Romney compared those managing Social Security to criminals, saying:

“Let’s look at what would happen if someone in the private sector did a similar thing. Suppose two grandparents created a trust fund, appointed a bank as trustee, and instructed the bank to invest the proceeds of the trust fund so as to provide for their grandchildren’s education. Suppose further that the bank used the proceeds for its own purposes, so that when the grandchildren turned eighteen, there was no money for them to go to college. What would happen to the bankers responsible for misusing the money? They would go to jail. But what has happened to the people responsible for the looming bankruptcy of Social Security? They keep returning to Congress every two years.”

Well, Romney seems to have turned the primary into a contest of which candidate scares the most crap out of seniors.

Wonderful.

...

He just repeated his claim that Perry would abolish SS. Hit Listen Live.

Although I don't think much of the Democrat-like attack on Perry, he continues to be a smooth operator. On Social Security, he endorses progressive indexing for higher-income recipients, which means benefit cuts.

Which, frankly, I support. The case for it is that the rate of increase in Social Security for upper income voters should be pegged to the CPI, not the much-more-generous (inflation-outstripping) wage index.

But still, benefit cuts, though I like calling it "progressive indexing."

Updates via DrewM & Allah.

posted by Ace at 05:29 PM

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