Obama To Social Security: Drop Dead

No, no Republican is running on the 2005 Bush Social Security privatization initiative that should have been passed back then when it might have saved the granddaddy of entitlements, but which Dubya abandoned to be kicked to death by Donk demagoguery because his heart was never really in it, but he had gotten re-elected on it so he had to go through the motions of giving it the old college try.

So now the "trust fund" is already running deficits eight years ahead of schedule thanks to the Democrat Financial Logic Bomb, the program is even more desperately in need of federal divestiture and marketization, but nobody gives a rat's ass and it's doomed, doomed doomed. 

And that situation will change over Red Barry's cold, dead body!:

On the 75th anniversary of the signing of the Social Security law, President Obama pledged Saturday to protect it from some Republicans who he said want to privatize the retirement account system and "place bets with Social Security on Wall Street."

But, Barry, you OWN Wall Street now, remember?  Lollipop and Countrywide gave it to you for your birthday.  So if Social Security taxes (the "trust fund" is a landfill, remember?) start pouring into the stock market, they're as good as flowing into your back pocket.  Think how many gimmicky putters you can buy with such a killing! 

That, the president said in his weekly radio and Internet address, would be a reckless move as the nation's economy struggles to recover from a recession, noting that President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security measure into law in the depths of the Depression.

Yes, he did - as a supplement to private pensions, with the retirement age (65) set at four years ABOVE the 1935 average U.S. life expectancy (61).  If the S.S. retirement age had been indexed to the average U.S. life expectancy going forward, it would now be 77 and the program wouldn't be in an actuarial death spiral.  Or, better yet, if the program had been privatized decades ago, same thing but even better.

But The One wants to kill it, just as he disembowled Medicare to pretend to "pay for" his health care takeover, and somehow still leave GOP fingerprints on the corpse.

"That agenda is wrong for seniors, it's wrong for America, and I won't let it happen," Obama said of some GOP ideas to turn the system over to the private marketplace. "Not while I'm president."

Well, golly gee whiz, why run against ACTUAL Republican ideas - which out the other side of his mouth he insists don't exist - when his party can run against make-believe strawmen and still get their asses kicked?  What, are his new clubs to replace the old ones he hurled into the nearest water hazard after creating a new bunker with his sand wedge still on backorder, and he actually has nother better to do than this?

Mark Halperin, last seen freaking out that The One wasn't going to Ground Zero, prayer rug in hand, to lead Manhattanites in bowing toward Mecca, actually kinda-sorta agrees:

In a move as predictable as Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown, Democrats are using Social Security scare tactics to gain ground before the November election. President Barack Obama is not only tolerating this classic old politics maneuver by his party — he is leading the charge. …

It is clear why Democrats are raising the specter of Republican efforts to alter Social Security. This tactic has worked in the past, as older voters — who typically turn out at the polls in higher percentages, especially in midterm years — tend to trust Democrats more than Republicans to protect the cherished retirement program. And given the weak economy, Obama’s mushy poll numbers and the lack of traction on the White House’s legislative achievements, it is no surprise that Democratic leaders would turn to the tried-and-true tactic. Also, with some prominent Republicans still calling for a fundamental change to the system by adding private accounts, the GOP has opened itself up to political attack.

But Obama is living in a parallel Vulcan universe if he thinks he and his strategists can spend the next two months using campaign appearances, advertising, robocalls and other voter communication to demonize Republicans on Social Security, and then turn around in January and try to make a deal on that same issue.

Um, Mark?  See above.  "...just as he disembowled Medicare to pretend to 'pay for' his health care takeover."  Barack Obama is quite possibly the least credible human being on the face of the planet to be trying to terrorize geezers about politicians plotting to gut their entitlement goodies.

Take your pick of nose-rubbing metaphors: "Physician, heal thyself"; or "Pot....kettle....[here's the windup....and the pitch] BLACK".

The irony being that - and you can mark this down as a prediction - if Social Security can be salvaged, it WILL be Republicans who do it.  And NOT through tax increases and benefit cuts, but exactly the free-market means Lucifer decries.  Because he will have long since rendered himself irrelevant, and powerless, to do anything about it.

He already has.  He just doesn't know it yet.