From TPM:
After Bush won a second term, he entered 2005 in a relatively strong position. He boasted about having "political capital," his approval rating was around 50%, and he looked at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue and saw a very friendly Republican majority in both chambers. Everything was how Bush and his team wanted it.
And then the president kicked off a campaign to privatize Social Security.
The more Americans learned about the plan, the more they hated it. After a few months of seeing Bush barnstorm the nation to sell his idea, Americans supported his handling of Social Security even less than his handling of Iraq. Bush's poll numbers collapsed, and never recovered. It was, by some measures, the president's jump-the-shark moment.
Even the most sycophantic of Republicans quickly realized that Bush's Social Security policy was poison to be avoided at all costs. Given the public's response, a candidate would have to be a blithering fool to embrace a plan that everyone loathed.
And yet, here's Rudy Giuliani.
Giuliani stressed his desire to have private forces shape the country's economy in education as well as in health care and Social Security. He said he supported President Bush's unsuccessful proposal to allow people to invest some of their Social Security taxes in private accounts.
"I would have preferred, over my lifetime, if I could have invested some of that Social Security money myself," said Giuliani, 63. "I think I would have done much better than the government did. I believe young people today, a lot of them feel that way. I think people who want a private option should be entitled to have it."
No comments:
Post a Comment