Chuck Blahous, Pro-Privatization Bush Aide, Nominated To Social Security Board

Wall Street Journal :

For much of 2005, a battered Democratic Party sought to regain its footing by doing battle with President George W. Bush over his attempt to carve private investment accounts out of Social Security.

The effort was widely viewed as a rousing success, stopping the initiative in its tracks and weakening a newly re-elected president, but the brains behind the Bush Social Security plan have not been vanquished...

Read the whole story: Wall Street Journal

Comments

[sparky73]

why I am not surprised?

[ThePeacemakers]

This article is sad because no one in the Senate or Congress laughed in their faces McConnel or anyone else when the name was proposed.

[blueskybigstar]

There is something wrong in the state of Denmark.

Shakespeare

But I mean America.

[Skepticat]

According to the full article this nominee was proposed by Mitch McConnell - it didn't say Obama approved - or that it was a done deal. I suspect it's just more obstructionism from the party on NO so they will have an "excuse" to oppose other nomineees.

[blueskybigstar]

It says that Obama nominated him.

[pissedmichael]

I have one hope. That this guy can be fired as easily as he was appointed.
That being said, I don't want anyone near Social Security who endorses an approach to profit that landed us in this mess in the first place.

[tjfxh]

Over the top. This "bipartisanship" is nonsense. Primary Obama in 2012. Alan Grayson for president.

[westreal]

In 2012, I'm voting for a new Democratic Presidential nominee because the one we have now is doing the stupidest things. What was the reason for this? Would anyone have cared if he got rid of him? NO. So he's keeping around a n_utcase just so he can claim bipartisanship.

[rosiebond007]

Unfortunately you are not reading the correct info and it's not being correctly reported.

THIS IS A NOMINATION BY MITCH McCONNELL - a choice that he is entitled to by the Rules & Regs of the House.

NOTHING TO DO WITH OBAMA.

I am sure this guy will become the coffee boy to keep him out of the way.

[JohnnyKay]

Thank you for informing all of us today.

Shame on Huffpost's reporting, it's become a revolving soap opera.

[neejerk]

rosie is right

but let me add, in case anyone wants to know, that the idea that social security needs fixing at all is based on a lie. i could prove this, or you could prove it yourself by getting a copy of the Trustees Report and doing the arithmetic. You would find that the cost of closing the "insolvency" amounts to a tax raise that averages 20 cents per week per year while wages are going up 10 dollars per week per year. there is an elegant way to write this fix into the law, but no way that i have found to get your congressmen or the president's advisors to pay any attention at all. for more try looking up the Bruce Web Social Security Series. or Coberly on Social Security. you might have to dig a little.

[Rog49Thomas]

Great news!

If we had listened to Former President Pan and his wise economic advisors and put the Social Security Fund into the market, our retirements would all be secure now. I even had a yacht picked out and a summer home at Casa de Campo.

Sadly, we missed the boom in Enron, Lehman, Bear Stearns, BofA , Citibank and so many other stocks.

I blame liberals for robbing me of a secure retirement -- and Acorn too.

[errol44]

What the ***??? For all of his intelligence, President Obama still cannot tell the difference between bipartisanship and setting the country up for failure.

[rosiebond007]

Unfortunately you are not reading the correct info and it's not being correctly reported.

THIS IS A NOMINATION BY MITCH McCONNELL - a choice that he is entitled to by the Rules & Regs of the House.

NOTHING TO DO WITH OBAMA.

I am sure this guy will become the coffee boy to keep him out of the way.

[belly dancer]

Thanks for him Mitch McConnell! you're a star! *wink*...w­hy is this guy being put in charge of social security? He has pretty much come out and said..."F*­** the government i'm wanna spin this baby through the craps wheel on wall street"...­these super privatizers are all a bunch of repressed gambling addicts...­.why should we expect him to run this well when he doesn't want it to run well?

[Chapmanp2]

He's NOT being "put in charge of social security". He's being appointed to an advisory panel.
He may actually have some good ideas...

[belly dancer]

jack *** i did not mean he would be the only one in charge...h­e would be on a panel with others and they all would be in charge...t­hus he would be in charge...d­o you understand?

[CigarGod]

Of course we all know what would have happened in last years crash, if Bush had succeeded in privatizing Social Security, right?

The private companies would have lost 1/2 or more of the value of their customers and we'd have had millions of grannies on the street...o­r the mint presses printing as fast as they could...to bail out the privateers.

[WeMustSpeakOut]

Looks like things may be aligned for them to give it another go!
Buckle up everyone.

[rosiebond007]

THIS HAS NOT BEEN REPORTED CORRECTLY ....

MITCH McCONNELL APPOINTED THIS GUY ... THE RULES & REGS GAVE HIM THAT RIGHT TO DO SO.

I WISH THE MEDIA WOULD REPORT CORRECTLY - THIS IS NOT, REPEAT NOT AN OBAMA APPOINTMENT.

[jerryfromcalifornia]

Thanks for the truth !
jerry belairca

[20090120]

Always consider the source...W­all Street Journal, a now whole owned subsidiary of Mr. Rupert Murdoch 'make up the news as we go along'.

[Montgriz]

Then let Obama undo it...

[Chapmanp2]

Yeah cause that way the opposition can call him a dictator & have evidence to support it.

[PJay1]

No, McConnell did not *appoint* OR nominate this guy.
He *recommended* him.
Big difference.

"...“As with all bipartisan commissions that require Senate confirmation, the opposition gets to recommend who represents them on the commission. That’s the intent of the law creating the bipartisan commission and that’s what makes it bipartisan,” a White House official said.

But Obama sent Blahous’s name up to the Senate, with nary a mention of his work championing what Democrats derisively called Social Security privatizat­ion..."

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/10/19/pro-privatization-bush-aide-nominated-to-social-security-board/

[GoodFeathers]

O is losing his mind.

[TJCole]

Obama is a Republicra­t....

[PJay1]

Yup

[rosiebond007]

Unfortunately you are not reading the correct info and it's not being correctly reported.

THIS IS A NOMINATION BY MITCH McCONNELL - a choice that he is entitled to by the Rules & Regs of the House.

NOTHING TO DO WITH OBAMA.

I am sure this guy will become the coffee boy to keep him out of the way.

[Okieborn]

President Obama has no worries about the Republican Party in 2012 !!
He is quickly defeating himself !!