Krugman and Social Security

Krugman had a piece today about privatizing Social Security. I commented, The amnesia of Republicans and Conservatives when it comes to this is actually a high water mark in their ability to forget what is painful and was just plain wrong. Talk to any of them about this and the gobbledegook you'll get from them is actually funny to behold. They have become, as far as I'm concerned, a bunch of joksters, not to be taken seriously for a time, but the damage they will do in holding up bills and obfuscating the forward-looking plans will be, I fear, considerable. Perhaps the Democrats will gather some courage and push back, but from people like Reid, Pelosi and the rest of them, I somehow doubt it. Maybe Obama will fight a battle at some point, but his concilatory stance at this point doesn't seem to lead down that path. The impetus behind pprivatization was, as many have pointed out, the 3% upfront commissions the Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns would have made, a virtual bonanza of money that probably wouldn't have kept them afloat anyhow, but oh what fun Bush and his cronies would have had, skimming the money off the top.

Response to Peter Ferrara, director of budget and entitlement policy at the Institute for Policy Innovation

What Conservatives Need To Do Now
And who will pay for all those services that everybody wants, with what taxes or profits. Lowering the income tax rates, time and again, hasn't proven to invigorate the economy; it only helps those who have a lot, so if the Republican / Conservative base is rich and has a lot, it might help them; but it has never stimulated the economy. "Back to grass roots" is old thinking, old ideas, and most of your article doesn't reflect much thinking about economics, only about organizing; ironically enough, a kind of Conservative community organizers' handbook, just what Obama was criticvized for and is now being proposed. Come on, guys, where is the original thinking that truly can lift us out of the mire we're in, the new programs, ideas that will help recoup our portfolios and retirement funds, the money we've lost, the crisis in manufacturing? Not a word about it that makes any sense. What you've proposed is a way to continue to lose voters and party membership. Let's hear some new thinking. Why do you think intelligent people like Buckley have abandoned ship?

About the "song" parody disk sent out...

Face it. The word "negro" is demeaning, and to those from the South it is doubly so. The Republican Party, evidently, doesn't understand how much better off it would be if, instead of criitcizing and carping, complaining and whining, it adopt a healthy, forward-looking cooperative attitude. We have a crisis here in the U.S., a bad one that affects all of us, those with protfolios and investment accounts, and those of us without them who struggle every day to meet our bills, and the Republican Party has been derelect for too long in (a) promising to work with the party in power in a cooperative fashion to help solve these destructive problems (yes, they affect you, too), and (b) proposing new solutions, innovative solutions, that will solve some of these problems. Standing on the sidelines, starting a "shadow government" (ominous sounding, isn't it?), singing little ditties that criticize the (yes, he was elected and by a majority) new President-to-be, all are stupid childish reactions that impotent people participate in. Be strong, resolute, bring the best minds forward, get some new really effective ideas on the table, talk about cooperation and bi-partisanship, or risk being consigned to the ashheap of history.