We first posted this back on 2 January, but it bears repeating. . .
From Charles Babington of the Associated Press:
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum called Friday for immediate cuts to Social Security benefits, risking the wrath of older voters and countless others who balk at changes to the entitlement program.
“We can’t wait 10 years,”even though “everybody wants to,” Santorum told a crowd while campaigning in New Hampshire and looking to set himself apart from his Republican rivals four days before the New Hampshire primary.
Most of his opponents have advocated phasing in a reduction and say immediate cuts would be too big a shock to current and soon-to-be retirees.
>snip<
Clearly aware of the risks, Santorum argued that everyone must sacrifice now because the nation’s “house is on fire” with soaring federal debt. He argued that he is being courageous and honest by telling Americans they can’t afford to wait to rein in Social Security’s growing costs. And he said he anticipated possible attack ads on his position.
The Nazis had a phrase they used to derogate “unproductive” people who took public money: Useless eaters.
And while Santorum has avoided the term, it’s implicit in his agenda.
The media doesn’t help, including the AP, by dubbing the programs with a term with strongly pejorative implications: Entitlement programs. Note that in everyday speech, calling someone “entitled” carries a strongly negative implication.
It’s worth repeating an excerpt from an 8 November 1954 letter from then-President Dwight David Eisenhower to his older brother Edgar:
Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H.L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.
That Santorum can effectively call for the cutting Social Security — a move that would imperil the lives of millions of American citizens — is evidence of just how far the Republican party has veered rightward since Ike’s day.
And note that the party is already effectively demolishing labor laws, and has declared against extension of unemployment benefits amidst the longest economic crash since the 1930s.
The inmates really are running the asylum, and Santorum is certainly an affluent inmate, as Bloomberg reported Thursday:
Since his 2006 re-election defeat, the former Pennsylvania lawmaker has gone from being one of the poorer members of the U.S. Senate to earning $1.3 million between January 2010 and August 2011. In 2007, he spent $2 million to buy a 5,000-square foot home in Great Falls, Virginia, according to property records.
Santorum’s financial rise was powered by consulting contracts with fuel producer Consol Energy Inc. (CNX), faith advocacy group Clapham Group and American Continental Group, a Washington consultancy, as well as media engagements.
