The report begins: "Riding high in the polls, Gov. Rick Perry rode into Iowa on Saturday with tough talk on President Obama, the economy and foreign policy and a declaration that Social Security is not only a Ponzi scheme but a 'monstrous lie' for younger people."
Portrait, Texas governor and Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry. (photo: HomeTownProphetBook.com)
Rick Perry: Social Security Is a 'Monstrous Lie'
28 August 11
iding high in the polls, Gov. Rick Perry rode into Iowa on Saturday with tough talk on President Obama, the economy and foreign policy and a declaration that Social Security is not only a Ponzi scheme but a "monstrous lie" for younger people.
"If you're for the status quo in America, I'm not your guy," Perry told an overflow crowd eager to see the presidential candidate at The Vine Coffeehouse, where people repeatedly sang God Bless America - once to try to encourage Perry to come in from shaking hands with people outside.
Asked by a woman in the crowd about Social Security being viewed as an entitlement program, Perry reiterated the suggestion in his anti-Washington book, "Fed Up!," that the program amounts to a Ponzi scheme.
"It is a Ponzi scheme for these young people. The idea that they're working and paying into Social Security today, that the current program is going to be there for them, is a lie," Perry said. "It is a monstrous lie on this generation, and we can't do that to them."
Later, in Des Moines, when a reporter asked about the suggestion that his campaign was backing off some positions in the staunch states-rights book, Perry said, "I haven't backed off anything in my book. So read the book again and get it right."
National Conversation
He told the Ottumwa crowd that for people who are drawing Social Security or near eligibility "like me," he wasn't proposing a change in the program. But he said there should be a national conversation about potential changes for others, including raising the age of eligibility and establishing a threshold based on a person's means.
"Does Warren Buffett need to get Social Security? Maybe not," he said.
Presenting himself as the candidate who can put Americans back to work, Perry listed jobs lost in Iowa "since President Obama took over as president" and said one in eight Iowans is on food stamps.
"To be fair, President Obama inherited a bad economy, but he sure made it worse," contended Perry, who offered general suggestions for improvement such as limiting and simplifying taxes and the need to "quit spending money we don't have."
On foreign policy, Perry when asked about Israel cited a statement by Obama that Israel-Palestine borders should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps - a position Perry called "throwing Israel under the bus."
"I'm going to stand with Israel," he said.
Asked whether he'd consider preemptive strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, Perry said there are "a lot of different ways to deal with Iran," including diplomatically and financially, But he added, "I'm never going to take off the table our ability to have a military solution to a country like Iran."
Switched Parties
Perry also was asked to explain his past support for Al Gore, in 1988 when Perry was a Democratic state House member.
"I never met a Republican 'til I was 25," said Perry, describing Texas' political past and his own, saying he "made both political parties happy" when he became a Republican in 1989.
In Des Moines, Perry also struck at Obama during a brief news conference. Asked whether he supported the potential Social Security eligibility changes he cited, Perry repeated his support for a "national conversation about how we can save the Social Security program that people expect to have as a retirement program.
"Anybody that is for the status quo ... I'll let the president speak for himself. If he wasn't for the status quo, we'd already be having this conversation."
He also called Obama "an absolute disaster as a president from the standpoint of our economy."
Perry's visit - which also included a meeting with Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad and corn growers - highlighted Perry's emphasis on Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucus vote on the presidential race.
Atop the Polls
Erstwhile frontrunner Mitt Romney has largely passed over Iowa in his emphasis on New Hampshire. Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann's win in the straw poll here was overshadowed by Perry's simultaneous jump into the race.
Perry has taken a lead in the polls, has a packed fund-raising schedule looming, plans visits to the other early-voting states over the long Labor Day weekend and soon after will face his first debate with other GOP candidates.
Texas Congressman Ron Paul, who came in second in the straw poll, took a bit of a dig at Perry's jobs message without naming him at a stop in Winterset.
"Presidents can't create jobs. Government can't create jobs. All they can do is create bureaucrats that interfere with your ability to create jobs," Paul said to applause from a crowd at the Northside Cafe. He also spoke at the Des Moines event before Perry.
Perry also has said that government doesn't create jobs, but at the same time, he's touting Texas' job numbers under his leadership as key proof that he has what it takes to put America back to work.
He said in Ottumwa that the country needs "someone who understands how to get America working again. And I'm it!"
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Comments
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He said to read his book, and it needs to be quoted frequently to show his supporters just what they are supporting. But I'm willing to bet that for many, maybe the majority, being confronted with what a kook this guy is will only reinforce their support for him.
The only time the GOP needs the man on the street is when he is headed to the polls. So Perry arrives, Bible in hand to announce his candidacy for President using the tried and true Republican Mantra: Voters will support any GOP Bible-thumping Christian as long as he is against abortion. Enter Perry,gun on his hip, spouting homophobic amendments. It was called the Moral Majority once, but it is always the same hypocrisy that professes Christianity to get elected. There is no excuse for ignorance. When you pull a lever for Perry you sentence us all to someone worse than Bush,a candidate intent on Corporate welfare, who will finish off the middle class. God hates liars. He equates lyingwith sexual immorality and stealing.
Because he doesn't even BELIEVE he's lying. He's a pathological liar for the detriment of all, and he's scarier than sh.t!
The Vine in Iowa is a WAY small bar and Iowa City is WAY Democrat. No one there, for real, is buying his pompous dominionist bull, except the few college-age kids who really don't yet know better...and then, they hear...their generation is being fed a "monstrous lie" about SSN from the government.
Sounds like Limbdawg to me on steroids and about to pound the world into dust just to get ready for a rapture that will surely only come in his addled mind.
Beware, though...do not forget the pulpit election of Dubya in 2004.
N.
These people who support Perry and his slimy cohorts deserve what they get!
Having won every election he's ever entered, Perry needs a new word to add to his resume: *LOSER*
Pray that this new word becomes a reality! Otherwise, NAR politics in the White House will make NAZI politics look like milk toast. NAR is FAR worse, hoping for complete Christianiztion -- their style -- of the world. And their style is nothing like Christ's teachings, not even close.
Finally, how racist is it to support Israel's corrupt government at the hands of NOT trying to find, or even examine, a compromise that would help the Palestinians AND the Israeli people? I mean, really..."It's like throwing Israel under a bus" to consider the 1967 compromise??? It may not work, but it is a move to helping all, not just a few.
Look. Bottom line. Perry knows just what side his bread's buttered on, and he's in this to win. We can only hope that he will shoot himself in the foot -- metaphorically -- with some of his clap-trap rhetoric.
N.
However, that is the least of your problems.
Hey - if you're going to nail writers for their "grammer" you might at least spell "grammar" right.
If your English grammar and spelling is a reflection of your faith in God, then, he, she or it must speak a different language and use Klingon syntax.
I don't usually nit-pick like this and certainly wish to mock no-one but if you wish to communicate on any kind of forum, please do it without slaughtering the "Language that Shakespeare spake (or Bob Dylan, or George Washington, or Mark Twain --or, or --!)". 'Tis rich and fair and deserveth better -as Bush Jr. so readily demonstrated.
Perhaps this is what Gov. Perry wishes us all to sound like, not to mention our state of comprehension.
Ha! Ha! This is so laughable...God did ALL this to US!
Wow...we are so arrogant as humans to believe that some GOD is pulling the strings and watching each and every one of us at each and every moment of each and every day??? Are you kidding? Oh, and GOD likes money, too, by the way...so make sure GOD gets all yours...the poor in America, well, they really don't need it because they got what was coming to them, eh????????
This is ignorant babble, Songbird, that you are allowed to eschew, but...well... try to find your heart, that soul you believe so mightily in having saved.
And, bye.
N.
.... as well his hair.
Fascists have NO scruples, and they look down on - laugh at - anyone who does.
And I have a problem with 'jobs he "created."' The problem is that he didn't do a blessed thing to cause them. The increase in jobs under his regime (11 years with total republican control of both houses and the judiciary) were almost completely due to increased population, mostly internal from a high birth rate, but also from Mexico, both illegal and legal, and from the high price of oil, a major factor in the Texas economy. Please, in the future say "jobs that happened while he was governor", and make a distinction about where they come from.
Perry is neither GOOD nor CHRISTIAN.
Sorry, but I know Ron Paul. Ron Paul was my Congressman. Ron Paul is as big a disaster as Rick Perry.
Ron Paul was the Tea Party before there was a Tea Party. His solution is to cut government services. Rick Perry wants to cut government services.
In this article http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20089744-503544.html Ron Paul and his son defend the Tea Party, a Koch brothers plan to make the rich richer and the poor more devastated.
Paul has no more soul than Perry. To argue that he does is to ignore the facts.
And his jobs that he created, he was able to do because of the Obama stimulus bill which of course he never gives credit to.
If the Republicans actually do nominate Perry, when 70 to 80 percent of the country is against touching the social security system, it indicates that they have an ultimate dirty trick waiting to be pulled.
he's also a screaming queen in private. can't wait for that one to surface MSM.
You are a disaster! I just hope people read your history and say NO TO RICK PERRY!!
Hm - I'm Toni Songbird - I forget what shows up on comments
morituri te salutant.
1) Why do you call Social Security a "Ponzi scheme"? What is this based on?
2) Are you aware that Social Security---even if we do absolutely nothing to it---is solvent for all payments until almost 2040, even by conservative estimates?
3) If you are truly convinced that Social Security is a "monstrous lie" and a "Ponzi scheme", then why do you have no plans to change it for current recipients or those over 50? Doesn't this contradict your statements about the program?
Let's start with these three and think of others. Social Security is too vital to leave this issue alone and allow Perry to skate by with such irresponsible and mendacious comments.
Despite the fact that I wouldn't vote for him if you set me on fire, he did not create all the jobs the state has gained through the stimulus. He created SOME that way. But, he's been governor since Dubya left in 2000, so he claims responsibility for all those minimum wage jobs as well.
Those who scream that the sky is falling are trying to scare those of us with a vested interest in the program. Last time they wanted to privatize the program, and that would have resulted in tremendous losses for everyone. This is how we know that Mr. Perry is ill-informed and/or has an agenda that he's unwilling to define in public.
Considering where he gets his funding and inspiration, its clear that he is dangerous to a healthy Republic, and the people who live here.
I think Perry and his gang just want the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer. The Republicans want to destroy the middle class! They seem to hate any one who is not rich! Hello! You can not have a viable democracy without a strong middle class! The way to stimulate the economy is to put money into the hands of people who normaly would not have it. Et Al the poor and middle income workers. Not by making the rich even more prosperous.
Perry did not do Texas any good! He won't be good for the country!
(Republicans will ultimately be known as great de-populators)
Well I might believe that if I thought that all the happened with Social Security taxes when collected was just piled in a corner somewhere and not reinvested in the form of government interest bearing bonds & loans and actually generating a return. Unlike those who invested in Corporations like Enron and Wall street and other portfolios generated by the likes of Bernie Madoff and other ilk.
But its not. Its an investment for me and has been since 1977 (its 40th year of existence) when the Government mandated my participation under the threat of penalty. (Penalty, Not being able earn a living and learn a trade, educational advancement, etc).
The only Ponzi scheme being perpetrated by any agency of the US Government is Military retirement & veteran benefits. They have only one source of revenue and thats the defense budget funded by State and Federal tax dollars, supported by all parties. ( http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=4978&type=0 )
Remember this when you go to the polls to vote in the next election.
This guy is scary. Ive been on Social Security for eleven years now. I paid for it for forty years and I deserve and need it. I'd never vote for this guy or anyone else that would threaten my Social Security.
This guy is worse than Palin or Bachmann.
There will be riots if the GOP privatizes or downs Social Security-- or Medicare -- education etc.
Register and get mail-in ballots ASAP and take that mail-in to the voting booth on election day and YOU put it in the Bucket.
I have an idea - feed back please.
I think I'll re-register as a GOP -- hold on I'm not going to be a GOP -- but it will guarantee that I can vote. GOP Governors have passed laws and made statements to make voting as a DEM difficult. I don't see anyone challenging Obama so I'd even get to vote for a GOP in primary (in my state) -- and that will be a hoot.
Anyone see a problem with this idea? In my state, other than the primary, all Dems/Repubs etc are on same ballot so I can vote for my Dem and be sure my ballot will not be discarded.
Indeed, America deserves what it chooses to get.
http://www.stylemagazine.com/governor-perrys-record-on-healthcare/
Does Rick Perry? I expect he doesn't need his Social Security either. In fact, why don't ALL REPUBLICANS beginning with the elected ones CONTRIBUTE their Social Security BACK into the trust fund (since SS is NOT PART of the general funds and does NOT contribute to the debt "crisis" at all).
I'm fairly sick of their "take it away" from the most vulnerable tactics. But then, I'm fairly sick of the Dems who don't stand up to them and stop their looting of the public safety nets.
Either way the working class takes the burden and hits. Time for the working class to stand up to the politicians controlled by right wing theocractic ideals or corporate fascists and excert the power of the general strike to shut down the country.
End the wars of agreesion, pass single payer health care, repeal Taft-Hartley, pass real immigration reform,repeal the tax breaks for million/billionaires, and increase capital gains tax for amounts over $500,000 to 50%.
"I'm never going to take off the table our ability to have a military solution to a country like Iran."
And he talks about the possibility of making war with Iran.Another war president?
Good luck to you folks in the USA.Here in Canada,we now have a war Prime Minister,we fell asleep and now we live with our decision.Be careful what you vote for.
Enough with war already.
Allow me to bring up a minor point, however, but which nevertheless irritates the hell out of me; which the Right has used before: In the article, Perry, being quoted, makes the pretension that he's not status quo. Talk about a flight from reality, given that the Republican agenda at its roots has been, is, the most reactionary part of the U.S. status quo. Nowadays, of course, they try to use "colored lights" to "hypnotize." Tragically, e.g., those among the working class are "willing" to go along, cutting their own throats.
Far better if we send the Politicians into outer space with all their corporate problems. Then those who want them can go after them and leave the Earth and us Earthlings alone.
Perry is illogical and is fitting the stereotype of the gunslinger. People for him have no idea how he manipulates them. Perry is a Ponzi scheme.
This reminds me of Republican sophistry (insincere arguments) that government is creating too much business uncertainty. Business people are always uncertain to some degree. But it appears that a large amount of the current business uncertainty is being ginned up by the Republican Party rhetoric and obstruction of effective government action in order to delay the economic recovery -- so they can win the 2012 presidential election.
This sophistry is similar to rhetoric about government programs redistributing wealth. All government programs, in fact almost all human institutions, redistribute wealth -- it's just a matter of the direction of the flow of wealth -- who it's being redistributed from and to. Currently, and for at least the last 30 years, the net effect is a lot more wealth has been and is being transferred from the "non-rich" to the "rich" by all our institutions, public and private. You can see that vividly at work in Rick Perry's Texas economy.
If we had waited for private corporations, or other private institutions to act we would still have child labor, rivers catching on fire, worrying about our children catching polio, no healthcare for and high poverty rates among the elderly, struggling to get out of the Great Depression, and dealing with the Nazi government of Europe and the Japanese Empire of Asia.
The saying "a bad mechanic blames his tools" applies when we fail to realize that our government has been sabotaged. Hypocrisy applies to those that blame government for failures, while supporting policies that sabotage and hobble government action. Sometimes government is not appropriate, but more often its failure is caused by sabotage by corporate lobbyists and politicians seeking political advantage.
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