Bush Propaganda Machine Takes Aim at Social SecurityBrace yourself for more Orwellian doublespeak, sleight of hand, smoke and mirrors and bald-faced lies, as the Bushies launch their public relations campaign to drum up popular support for dismantling…er, I mean privatizing, Social Security. Progressives have another opportunity to watch helplessly as the Bushies continue getting away with saying down is up and black is white. If all goes according to plan, and with help from the compliant media, no one will notice what is being taken from them in broad daylight.
Groups with friendly, politically-correct sounding names such as For our Grandchildren, Alliance for Worker Retirement Security, Women for Social Security Choice [get it? women…choice…oh, they are shameless!] are all part of the strategy to convince the country that we need to rid ourselves of that dastardly program, Social Security. And to add insult to injury, they call themselves grassroots organizations while receiving funding from such groups as right-wing zealots, Club for Growth (the one they’re willing to name)…Read on. Then write a letter to your local newspaper.
Help reframe this issue for the asleep-at-the-wheel media by calling it what it is. This is not about reform, updating, reshaping or overhaul: this is an attempt to dismantle, undo, take down, rob, destroy, Social Security, a government program that works.
New York Times
By Edmund L. Andrews
WASHINGTON, Dec. 16 - Introduced as a "single mom" from Iowa, Sandra Jaques was cool and confident as she praised Bush's plan to partly replace Social Security with private savings accounts.
But Ms. Jaques is not any random single mother. She is the Iowa state director of a conservative advocacy group, FreedomWorks, whose founders are Jack F. Kemp, the former vice-presidential nominee, and Dick Armey, the former House Republican leader.
[Another advocate for private accounts] Leanne Abdnor said she had raised start-up money from friends, whom she would not identify. She said the group would wage a publicity campaign to counter groups that oppose private accounts.
Support for overhauling Social Security also comes from numerous self-described grass-roots organizations: For Our Grandchildren, which employed Ms. Jaques as a director in Iowa; SocialSecurityChoice.org, backed by pro-business political groups like Club for Growth; and USANext, a Virginia-based group run by Charles Jarvis, a former Reagan administration official.
(click here to read the entire article)
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