Reality Check: Rick Perry Did Not Say He Wants to End Social Security; Wants to Fix It for Younger Workers; No Change for Current or Approaching Retirees – Video 9/7/11

Let’s play this portion of last night’s GOP Presidential Debate to make clear what Gov. Rick Perry said – and didn’t say – about Social Security.

The Mitt Romney Campaign, and a salivating media, are this morning saying Rick Perry wants to destroy Social Security. He did not say that last night. If you listen to the video above, you hear that he clearly told current retirees and those near retirement they have nothing to worry about. What he called a “monstrous lie,” and a “Ponzi scheme” is telling the current generation of young workers that the “status quo” will mean the system will still be there for them after paying in all their lives.

Romney is going to try and use this to destroy Perry. It’s his only hope to stop Perry and win the nomination. He has positioned himself with the liberal media and both will press the attack on Perry in the weeks ahead as the guy who wants to harm old people and destroy Social Security. Perry does need to continue to emphasize what he said last night – that current retirees or those near retirement would not be affected by his desire to reform Social Security so that young workers will have something for their retirement in years ahead. But he’s right to tell the truth about the unsustainability of the current system. It’s yet to be seen whether he can do it, and win.

Posted by Brian on Thursday, September 8th, 2011   |   8 Comments »
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  • Felix in NJ

    Perry blew it with the Ponzi scheme
    remark. Never give the enemy ammunition -even if it’s the truth. The
    Dems always go after the GOP with the “trying to tamper with SS” cliche .
    Perry saying that gives them a big caliber bullet for an ad. Dem ad :
    clip of Perry saying Social Security is a Ponzi Scheme; very simple
    & effective
    .

  • http://twitter.com/cemiami Carlos Echevarria

    @455fa3dbe08abefc82679e727fe5e068:disqus Felix, it was in his book, so the Dems would have used it anyway !!! It was his first debate up there…

    Do you want me to go into the history of Social Security, in terms of life expectancy in the ’30′s, number of workers per retiree in that era, as opposed to today, etc??? or even FDR’s OWN remarks about it being a temporary solution.

  • Brian_FL

    Felix,
    You are right that the conventional thinking is that Social Security is the “third rail” of American Politics and that you can’t get elected telling the truth about it. That’s why it is unsustainable right now – no one has the guts to deal with it. We are about to find out if the conventional thinking still holds true. My guess is that enough voters now know it has to be reformed for younger workers. I think it could end up being a plus, showing Perry has guts, as opposed to the current occupant of the White House.

  • just an average voter

    I’m voting for whoever the gop nom is, but this seals it for me.  SHAME ON ROMNEY!
    I watched Perry, that is not what he said!  I have family members on SS, and I asked them if they were scared of what Perry said, and they told me no, SS is going broke, as long as the current recipients are not affected, it has to be changed for the younger generation.

    The family I have have that are on SS are still planning on voting for Perry. Shame on Romney for acting like a liberal with his stupid lies! And Rove for feeding into this nonsense.  Elder voters aren’t stupid!

  • Brian_FL

    Absolutely, they would have used it against him anyway. This gets it out there, and gives Perry to lay out a plan to reform Social Security well ahead of the General Election.  Romney has staked his candidacy now on demonizing Perry for wanting to reform the system.

  • Felix in NJ

    I believe you can campaign  saying” Social security needs to be reformed”..even some Dems agree with that. But it’s not politically astute to say it’s a Ponzi scheme or it should be blown up. Fiery rhetoric can be sliced & diced  into a very effective ad against him. Choice of words matters & has consequences.

  • Katielee4211

    Thanks for posting. I knew he hadn’t said he was advocating abolishing Social Security. Essentially he and Romney were on the sort of on same page I thought, both want to save SS.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_R7AD4VDCURMCACQOITZPDSTCKM MichaelT

    The fact is Perry is hoping that seniors are greedy and selfish old geezers that only want to protect their own financial interests.  I think most seniors want their children and grandchildren to have the same retirement and health care security that they have in Social Security and Medicare.  Perry’s hope is that they don’t and will throw their children and grandchildren under the bus to save themselves.  He’s wrong.  

    Perry’s plan would relegate today’s youth to poverty and an early death.  My grandparents love me too much and would NEVER go for Perry’s plan.  Moreover, his plan would turn over our retirement security to Wall Street where they would skim off the ba k of seniors in the form of fees to maintain their retirement accounts.  My understanding is that they would be akin to a 401k.  How many people saw their 401ks grow these last few years? That’s what I thought.

    Perry’s ideas are bad for America and bad for seniors now, and in the future.


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