Could Obama really learn something from Reagan?
A stunning, old quote reveals the Gipper understood that Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit VIDEO
By David SirotaTopics: Video, Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama, Chained CPI, Social Security, cutting social security, MSNBC, Rachel Maddow, David Axelrod, Deficit, News, Politics News
Between 2005 and today, a series of elections took place that fully rejected the Republican economic worldview that says America must cut successful programs like Social Security. Yet, eight years after President Bush first proposed cutting Social Security, we have somehow arrived back where we started – only instead of a Republican president championing Social Security reductions it is a Democratic president.
This bizarre repetition of presidential history was the subject of Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC interview last night of President Obama’s top political consigliere David Axelrod. The discussion was significant for how Axelrod tried to avoid answering why, when it comes to Social Security, President Obama is now positioning himself to the right of Ronald Reagan. He is doing this by invoking deficits and debt as the reason to propose cutting Social Security, even though that program that has almost nothing to do with the national deficit and debt.
As with so many of the biggest issues of the present moment, Reagan is a particularly important figure in today’s debate over Social Security. That’s because though he was hardly a great champion of the concept of social insurance, he did use his bully pulpit to remind America of a critical fact that is being ignored by those who want to dismantle Social Security. Watch what he said in 1984:
Yes, that’s right, as the Gipper put it, “Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit…(it) has nothing to do with balancing a budget or erasing or growing the deficit.”
That sentiment, of course, is as true today as it was in 1984. Yet, what Reagan said is now considered radical — so radical, in fact, that a Democratic president will not only avoid reiterating Reagan’s words, but worse, is now proposing a budget predicated on the idea that Reagan was wrong.
Rightly criticizing the White House’s moves, Maddow last night floated the idea that the old politics of triangulation is driving the Obama administration’s cynical calculation on Social Security. That punch-the-hippies formula posits Democratic president will look “centrist” – -and therefore strong – by championing an extreme policy that offends liberal voters and draws the ire of the organized left.
If, in fact, that is what is driving the White House right now, the political problem for administration officials is that the tried-and-true calculation probably won’t work on Social Security. That’s because while a Wall Street funded campaign has created the perception inside the Beltway that cutting Social Security is “centrist,” polls show that among the general public, it most certainly is not. Indeed, those polls show that protecting Social Security isn’t viewed as a “left” cause, and that the true “centrist” position on Social Security is in support of preserving up the existing program rather than cutting it.
In that sense, Americans still seem to implicitly appreciate the truth of Reagan’s 1984 declaration about Social Security – even though Obama and Republicans don’t want us to.
David Sirota is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist, magazine journalist and the best-selling author of the books "Hostile Takeover," "The Uprising" and "Back to Our Future." E-mail him at ds@davidsirota.com, follow him on Twitter @davidsirota or visit his website at www.davidsirota.com. More David Sirota.
Related Stories
More Related Stories
-
Assata Shakur first woman named on FBI most wanted list
-
Georgia town allegedly diverting sewage to black neighborhood
-
Pic of the day: World Trade Center reborn
-
Hacker steals sensitive infrastructure data from U.S. military
-
Shots fired at Houston airport
-
Howard Kurtz and the Daily Beast "part ways" after Jason Collins error
-
Dutch police may get right to hack into computers
-
U.S. calls for amnesty of American prisoner in North Korea
-
Maryland bans the death penalty
-
Why conservatives should support immigration equality
-
6 insidious ways you're getting ripped off
-
Fracking ourselves to death in Pennsylvania
-
Americans to government: Hands off our civil liberties
-
What anti-LGBT activists say "off the record"
-
Accidental child shooting in Kentucky sparks gun debate
-
Obama will pitch immigration overhaul in Mexico
-
Bangladesh building collapse toll climbs to 433
-
NYPD's Ray Kelly: Blacks "understopped" by police
-
Obama administration to defend age restrictions on emergency contraception
-
Gitmo lawyer found dead in apparent suicide
-
Teenager charged for science project gone awry
Featured Slide Shows
The week in 10 pics
close X- Share on Twitter
- Share on Facebook
- Thumbnails
- Fullscreen
- 1 of 11
- Previous
- Next
-
This photo. President Barack Obama has a laugh during the unveiling of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Tx., Thursday. Former first lady Barbara Bush, who candidly admitted this week we've had enough Bushes in the White House, is unamused.
Reuters/Jason Reed -
Rescue workers converge Wednesday in Savar, Bangladesh, where the collapse of a garment building killed more than 300. Factory owners had ignored police orders to vacate the work site the day before.
AP/A.M. Ahad -
Police gather Wednesday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to honor campus officer Sean Collier, who was allegedly killed in a shootout with the Boston Marathon bombing suspects last week.
AP/Elise Amendola -
Police tape closes the site of a car bomb that targeted the French embassy in Libya Tuesday. The explosion wounded two French guards and caused extensive damage to Tripoli's upscale al-Andalus neighborhood.
AP/Abdul Majeed Forjani -
Protestors rage outside the residence of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Sunday following the rape of a 5-year-old girl in New Delhi. The girl was allegedly kidnapped and tortured before being abandoned in a locked room for two days.
AP/Manish Swarup -
Clarksville, Mo., residents sit in a life boat Monday after a Mississippi River flooding, the 13th worst on record.
AP/Jeff Roberson -
Workers pause Wednesday for a memorial service at the site of the West, Tx., fertilizer plant explosion, which killed 14 people and left a crater more than 90 feet wide.
AP/The San Antonio Express-News, Tom Reel -
Aerial footage of the devastation following a 7.0 magnitude earthquake in China's Sichuan province last Saturday. At least 180 people were killed and as many as 11,000 injured in the quake.
AP/Liu Yinghua -
On Wednesday, Hazmat-suited federal authorities search a martial arts studio in Tupelo, Miss., once operated by Everett Dutschke, the newest lead in the increasingly twisty ricin case. Last week, President Barack Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker, R.-Miss., and a Mississippi judge were each sent letters laced with the deadly poison.
AP/Rogelio V. Solis -
The lighting of Freedom Hall at the George W. Bush Presidential Center Thursday is celebrated with (what else but) red, white and blue fireworks.
AP/David J. Phillip -
Recent Slide Shows
-
The week in 10 pics
-
"Arrested Development" character posters
-
Photos of the Boston manhunt
-
Newspaper headlines covering the Boston explosion
-
- Share on Twitter
- Share on Facebook
- Thumbnails
- Fullscreen
- 1 of 11
- Previous
- Next
Related Videos
Most Read
-
71 names so awful New Zealand had to ban them
Kyle Kim, GlobalPost
-
"This could be a career ender for Michele Bachmann"
Alex Seitz-Wald
-
He made me his drug mule
Alix Wall
-
Ted Cruz will never be president
Joan Walsh
-
Claire Messud to Publishers Weekly: "What kind of question is that?"
David Daley
-
Pictures of people who mock me
Haley Morris-Cafiero
-
Is Michael Pollan a sexist pig?
Emily Matchar
-
How conspiracists think
Sander van der Linden, Scientific American
-
Bush cancels Europe trip amid calls for his arrest
Justin Elliott
-
"Star Trek's" Wil Wheaton tells newborn girl why being a nerd "is awesome"
Prachi Gupta
Popular on Reddit
links from salon.com
From Around the Web
Presented by Scribol
-
Ken Cuccinelli Once Filed An Amendment To Change Virginia's State Song To The Beatles' "Taxman" -
Masters Of The Universe: Lawmakers Obsess Over Threats From Space -
Commerce Appointment Opens A New White House Rift - Who Said It: Terry McAuliffe Or A Character From "House Of Cards"?
- State Department Unsure Of Status Of Saudi Diplomat In Alleged Trafficking Investigation






Comments
38 Comments