Bush on Monday: “MLK would have wanted social security reform”
Both Echidne and Melanie have offered reactions here to Bush’s pre-inaugural WaPo interview. In reading over the transcript, I came across a third WTF, which is a new meme the president is spreading in order to court support for Social Security reform among voters of color.
When asked how he could garner support in his second term from African-Americans, 90% of whom voted against him, the President replied:
… The Social Security issue is an interesting issue when it comes to African Americans. After all, the life expectancy of African American males is a lot less than other groups and, therefore, if you really think about that, you have people putting money in the system that aren’t — families won’t benefit from the system. And, therefore, it seems to me to make sense, if I were a part of a group of people that were being disadvantaged by the Social Security system, that I’d at least like to have the opportunity to have some of the money I put in the system passable to my family.
At face value, Bush has a point. Well, until you start thinking. If I were part of a group of people dying off at a much younger age than everyone else, I wouldn’t be as worried about the benefits my family may or may not get as I would be worried about DYING YOUNG.
January 16th, 2005 at 2:16 pm
Interesting idea, surely. I wonder how this will play when it is revealed that survivor benefits would be gutted in the new, streamlined 21st century Social Security (better known as the “Medicare Drug Benefit for Stock traders”? Heretofore, black males who died at an age much earlier than the general population at least left some small pittance for their widows and orphans. That will of course die when this latest Bush strocity in the never ending war against America comes to fruition.