Because voters deserve to know what candidates and parties really believe, I’ve decided to begin extracting positions from the Republican Party of Texas (RPT) Platform that I think are worth further comment.
I’ll be doing this pretty frequently under the heading, “Might Want To Put A Pin In This.”
Today’s entry: RPT Principle # 38 Social Security Opt-Out.
“We support reform to Social Security that allows people to opt-out.”
Republicans have never been big fans of Social Security.
Many of them gave it grudging support when it initially passed but they’ve been after it ever since and G.W. Bush tried to reform it away in the early part of this century.
Good thing he failed because Social Security and Medicare helped countless seniors withstand the economic crash at the end of his second term.
So, now we propose opt-out. Sounds innocent enough just let people handle it for themselves.
Here’s the thing.
The financial foundation of the system relies on people and employers paying in to cover payments going out.
An opt-out of any size (not necessarily very large) undermines the financial structure and makes the system vulnerable both fiscally and politically—which I think is the point.
Our Republican friends don’t want to oppose an extremely popular program like Social Security—they just want to get rid of it.
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