AARP, the senior citizens lobby, demagogued Moynihan’s plan to death in 2005, charging that any long-term investments in stocks was a “risky scheme” that would kill Social Security. Soon after the plan - championed by President George W. Bush - was declared dead, AARP said it was going into the mutual fund business.
Now, with Social Security facing bankruptcy, AARP says it’s willing to support needed cuts in the retirement program.
“We are open to talking about different options to strengthen Social Security for the long term,” including “changes on the benefit side,” David Certner, AARP’s legislative director, told Bloomberg News.
Meantime, the economy remains weak, unemployment is stuck above 9 percent nationally, and that has plunged federal tax revenues, which are driving deficits up to record levels.
Halfway through the third year of his presidency, Mr. Obama is trying to shed his liberal, big-spending image with campaign gimmicks. This month, he signed an executive order to create the “Campaign To Cut Government Waste.” He’s three years late and more than $3 trillion short.
Last week, his chief of staff, William M. Daley, met with leading manufacturing executives to talk about cutting job-killing regulations. The CEOs were not impressed.
“We think there’s a thin facade by the administration to say the right things, but they don’t come close to doing things,” said Barney T. Bishop III, chief executive of the Associated Industries of Florida. “We love the platitudes, but we want to see action.”
Donald Lambro is a syndicated columnist and former chief political correspondent for The Washington Times.
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By Jay Sekulow
The left's outrage over the IRS turns to a plea to 'move on'
