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Harry Reid Speak with Forked Tongue

by John F. Tamburo, Editor in Chief, Publisher
Originally Posted: 2/8/2005 3:55:47 PM
Last Updated: 2/8/2005 3:55:48 PM

Senator Harry Reid, Democrat from Nevada.  He is the person who has replaced Tom Daschle as Senate Shrinking-minority leader, and was, along with Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic co-whiner after our President’s wonderful State of the Union address.  Now, he whines that anything remotely market-oriented about Social Security reform would be "roulette."  However, no so long ago, the Senator spoke a different tune.

"On FOX News in 1999, the Senator stated: "Most of us have no problem with taking a small amount of the Social Security proceeds and putting it into the private sector."  Isn’t that precisely exactly what George W. Bush is proposing?"

On FOX News in 1999, the Senator stated: "Most of us have no problem with taking a small amount of the Social Security proceeds and putting it into the private sector."  Isn’t that precisely exactly what George W. Bush is proposing?  Up to 4.0% of your salary per year into carefully-screened no-load mutual funds.  Back then, Bill Clinton was in office.  The GOP was afraid of the "third rail" of American Politics.  Now, the GOP is in office with a solid mandate, and the tune changes.  He accuses our President of "gambling" and fabricates the lie of a 40% benefits reduction for retirees.  Yet, Mr. Reid, along with chief co-whiner Nancy "if we do nothing we can still pay 70 to 80 percent of benefits" Pelosi, both participate in exactly the kind of program that our president proposes:  The Federal Thrift Savings Plan.  Their retirements will be lavish because of what they want to refuse to give you.

What’s wrong with "Voluntary contributory annuities, by which individual initiative can increase the annual amounts received in old age[?]" Or, for that matter, what’s wrong with the idea that government funding (and the control that comes along with it) "ought to ultimately be supplanted by self-supporting annuity plans[?]"  Nothing at all, according to Franklin D. Roosevelt, in a message to Congress dated January 17, 1935.  So Harry Reid, in an attempt to pander to the socialists who want to place their boots on your necks and make you dependent upon the government, and force you to vote for them out of fear for money to live on, completely reverses his position of 1999, and flouts even FDR, the grandaddy of socialist liberal Democrats.

This hypocrisy proves what we’ve known all along.  The Democratic base is fueled by nothing but hate and an evil desire to control others.  The elected Democrats can do nothing whatsoever except pander to their base, because it is so strident and demanding that it, like a petulant child, expects 100% of every issue to go its own way.  Dare the elected ones do anything that is sensible but divergent from the extremism of the base, and they will feel the sting at the ballot box. 

So Harry Reid’s hypocrisy may be rooted in the fact that he is a hostage to the extremists of the Democratic base.  But that is no excuse!  Senator Reid should have the backbone to tell the extremists to grow up and he should have the moral consistency to speak to the common sense of our President, who apparently seeks nothing more than to implement the finality of FDR’s own plan.