George HW Bush OPPOSED Social Security PRIVATIZATION

[liberalpragmatist]

http://www.tnr.com/etc.mhtml

GEORGE H.W. BUSH DISAVOWS PRIVATIZATION:
... back in 1987.

Crack TNR editorial assistant Ben Adler recently fished this H.W. Bush quote out of the TNR archives (from the November 23, 1987 issue):

I think it's a nutty idea to fool around with the Social Security system and run the risk of the people who've been saving all their lives.... It may be a new idea, but it's a dumb one.

For those keeping score, the comment came in response to a question from fellow presidential candidate Pete du Pont during a presidential debate. Du Pont was an advocate of partially privatizing the program.

***

By the way - who the hell is Pete Du Pont?

[Jack Rabbit]

1. Pete du Pont

Former Governor of Delaware.

[agitpropagent9]

2. interesting...

to be fair, there's been a lot of shifting positions on social security, whether it's in crisis or not and the privatization issue on both ends of the political spectrum. ultimately, government itself can't be trusted.

but you're right about that being in stark contrast to bush now.

[Az_lefty]

3. He also thought invading Iraq was a dumb idea....

guess his kid wasn't listening.

[Clarkie1]

4. Wow. Good work digging that one up. n/t

[liberalpragmatist]

5. Well, I didn't

Someone at TNR did.

They can be of some use... sometimes.

[tsuki]

6. From the du Pont's.

[WLKjr]

7. Every R is against something till they need to use it.

Then they are all for it.


It's called selfishness.

[applegrove]

8. Yeah - HW was not into remaking the country into a one party state -

I'm sure Bush Jr. considers him "old-fashioned" for it.