McCain Lies About Social Security Privatization

In March, after ThinkProgress caught Sen. Joe Lieberman lying to cover up Sen. John McCain's support for Social Security privatization, I posted video (with the help of reader Tom M.) from 2004 of McCain, in response to an audience question, explicitly backing Social Security privatization by name.

Q: Will privatizing Social Security be a priority for you going forward?

...

McCAIN: Without privatization, I don't see how you can possibly, over time, make sure that young Americans are able to receive Social Security benefits.

Today at a Nashua town hall (his best forum!), McCain himself lied about his position, saying:

I'm not for, quote, privatizing Social Security. I never have been. I never will be.

The DNC just juxtaposed today's video with the 2004 video.

There's some evidence that McCain is currently stronger than Obama with voters over 65. If they see him lie about Social Security, that edge won't last very long.

Cross-posted at LiberalOasis.

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Comments

[piniella]

McCain appeared with Bush in Tucson, AZ on March 21, 2005 to support Bush's privatization plan.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/03/20050321-7.html

[XME]

I've been solidly behind Senator Obama since the beginning of this election season. I also felt strongly that if Clinton got the nomination, I would vote for McCain because I simply do no trust Clinton and felt that she only cared about making history and getting back in the White House, not about doing what is best for US or even the Democratic party.

However, as the primaries went on and I heard more from McCain, I began to realize that even if Hillary Clinton won, I could not in good conscience vote for McCain. As much as I don't like or trust Hillary, I also now do not trust OR even like him, and when you add to this that I completely disagree with his views on policies, I would have had to vote for whomever the Democratic nominee was. I was just very thankful that it was Obama so I could vote FOR him, not just against McCain.

[jeanrenoir]

I'm 64, and this is by far the most consequential election of my lifetime (except for '00, when Gore's loss gave us a war in Iraq which we never would have fought under him). McCain and the neocons have GOT to be stopped, or we will soon be fighting not just in Iraq and Afghanistan but in Iran as well. The neocons' policies are the most disastrous, geopolitically and economically, of any crazed policy prescriptions by people in power (as opposed to, for instance, American communists, and isolationists, out of power) in American history. War in Iraq, or even bomb, bomb, bombing Iraq, would instantly give us $10 gas and crater both the stock market and the world economy. So stopping McCain is not just a matter of preventing further insanity in American foreign policy, the sequel to Bush's, but also the only hope of preventing an unprecedented economic disaster as well. It's truly ALL on the line this time. Let's pray that the average American Archie Bunker somehow gets his act together this year and votes his interest instead of being the Republican puppet he's been since '68, admittedly, starting in that year, partly because of far left Democratic follies and nose-thumbings at the "pigs."

[MourningDude]

How do you feel about having bought into a ponzi scheme for an entire lifetime? How do you feel about burdening your children and your grandchildren with your retirement expenses?

I think retirees and baby boomers have made their bed, and now they should sleep in it. It's time to end the insanity. I still have plenty of time to save for MY OWN retirement. I don't want to burden my kids and their kids with it. I think that's selfish and foolish.

Why are we handing every newborn a bill for $200,000 to pay for grandpa's retirement? It's sheer idiocy.

[bgregs]

Maybe it's just another gaffe..... No wait, he's just being himself, george w mccain!