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FLORIDA POLITICS
Since 2002, daily Florida political news and commentary

 

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Thanks for visiting. On a semi-daily basis we scan Florida's major daily newspapers for significant Florida political news and punditry. We also review the editorial pages and political columnists/pundits for Florida political commentary. The papers we review include: the Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel, Palm Beach Post, Naples News, Sarasota Herald Tribune, St Pete Times, Tampa Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Tallahassee Democrat, and, occasionally, the Florida Times Union; we also review the political news blogs associated with these newspapers.

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The Blog for Sunday, January 30, 2005

State GOoPer SS Hypocrisy

    In "State GOP discusses 2006 strategy" we read that:
    U.S. Reps. Ginny Brown Waite of Spring Hill and Tom Feeney of Oviedo said Bush's proposals to let employees invest part of their Social Security taxes into private investment accounts should be a winner for GOP candidates. They said the Democrats are trying to mobilize their base of retirees by claiming that adding private accounts would jeopardize existing Social Security benefits.

    "Shame on them for scaring our seniors," said Brown Waite, whose north-central district includes tens of thousands of retirees.

    Feeney noted that, in the sixth year of a presidency, an incumbent's party usually loses congressional seats. He said Social Security could be a mobilizing issue for young voters if GOP members get their message out.

    "We don't want to just become caretakers. We're willing to take some risks," he said. "The Democrats are demagoguing on an issue that every young person knows is in their interests."
    Have we got Ginny talking outa both sides of her mouth here? Did she actually say "Bush's proposals to let employees invest part of their Social Security taxes into private investment accounts ..."? It is important to know because, as Josh Marshall points out, our
    Ginny keeps forgetting to answer the question on the table. She tells voters she won't cut benefits for current or near-retirees. But she never remembers to answer the question on the table: Does she support carving private accounts out of Social Security?
    Well, sounds like she's pretty much there - if she said, "let employees invest part of their Social Security taxes into private investment accounts", she seems to support carving private accounts out of Social Security. However, she's telling her constituents and the media something quite different; Josh Marshall again:
    "I'm against privatization. I'm against cutting benefits to retirees," she [Brown Waite] told the Times. Then, she added, "We do have to look at the long term fiscal stability of Social Security."

    In other words, Brown-Waite is relying on the misleading dodge that phasing-out a portion of Social Security and replacing it with private accounts does not equal "privatization". So what she's doing is far closer to 'lying' than anything in the recorded telephone message.
    Inasmuch as she "has more Social Security recipients than any other in the country", Brown-Waite really needs to come clean on her position: is she for privatization, or not; and if so, is she for a carve out, or a supplement?

9:56 AM

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