One of the biggest issues in the race to replace retiring Democratic Rep. Brian Baird in Washington’s 3rd Congressional District, is not Social Security privatization per se, but rather, where Republican nominee Jaime Herrera stands on it.
Like most Americans, the vast majority of WA-03 voters oppose Social Security privatization, because they understand the role this crucial program has played over the past 75 years in raising our nation’s elderly out of poverty, and they understand that, if Republican privatization proposals had prevailed, many retirees would have been wiped out by the Bush recession and its resulting stock market collapse. That’s not really up for debate.
But whether Herrera would be a reliable vote for privatization—or whatever Republicans choose to call it next time around—that’s an issue that should weigh heavily on WA-03 voters as they struggle to fill out their ballots during these tough economic times.
Of course, after being pounded on the issue by her Democratic opponent Denny Heck, Herrera now claims that she opposes “privatization.” But that wasn’t her position at a Republican candidate forum in Lewis County last May, when the moderator bluntly asked the panel: “Do you believe that Americans should be able to use all or a portion of their Social Security taxes to invest in individually owned retirement accounts, such as a 401-K or an IRA?”
As you can see in the video above, Herrera joins her fellow Republicans in answering “Yes.”
That’s the sorta answer Herrera needed to give to win a primary against an insurgent Tea Party challenger… though now her campaign claims that she merely “misunderstood” the question.
Huh. Really?
“Private accounts” and “privatization” are two ways of describing the same thing, and if Herrera doesn’t understand that, how can voters really trust her to protect Social Security from Wall Street backed “reforms?” Of course, they can’t, which perhaps explains why New York billionaire investor David Koch and his Social-Security-privatization-shilling Americans for Prosperity have already invested big in electing Jaime Herrera?
Why do you hate Hispanic Conservative Women?
You can’t “trust” her you say Goldy??
Him..sounds racist and sexist at the same time.
Shame on your sorry Leftist ass!
She’s a fucking republican, asshole…
The republican party hates democracy.
The republican party hates Americans.
It’s you who should be ashamed…you whining moron.
Another lying Republican tells another lie is news?
Or is another stupid Republican candidate saying something stupid news?
WA-03 residents who vote Republican this cycle really can’t be reached.
“sounds racist”
You can just STFU, KLOWN.
Cynny,
You’re the one who threw the race issue into the discussion. The post is about her hypocrisy–er, I mean her inconsistency with regard to the privatization of Social Security. Herrera’s ethnicity has nothing to do with this post. That plainly matters to you, though, you racist, half-witted, Beckian lap puppy.
OBAMA has already stacked his special commission with SS haters and is poised to gut the program. Goldy didn’t care about this until someone gave him money to shill for the Dems….(again?).
It’s pretty easy to tell when a Republican is lying – their lips are moving. When they get caught in a lie, they claim they didn’t understand the question.
It’s pretty depressing to see the utter lack of intelectual honesty among the Republicans. Even with this season’s incredible array of attack ads, theirs still stand out. Like Koster’s ad, aired last week, which showed a Chinese communist flag behind Larson’s photoshopped image, and blamed Larson’s vote in favor of the stimulus package as being responsible for the “outsourcing of our jobs to China”.
Obviously, they aren’t even making an attempt at telling the truth. For them, up is down, true is false, and false is true.
Pyrite,
So you getting nervous yet? Based on your recent posts you’ve almost lost it.
Wonder what your going to do when both the House and Senate go “R.”
And we can trust the Democrats, after their keystone kops performance?
The Democrats, who have & protect Alan Simpson as heading up their Social Security Rescue Committee?
Wake up and smell the roses, Democrats aren’t gonna save you from the hordes. They’ve proven, that, in their own small way, they are entirely happy with shredding what little is left of the laughable “social safety net.”
Clinton eviscerated a weak welfare system to make it 100% mean.
Obama will privatize social security as his professorial logic takes him there.
@7
They know their audience/supporters…easy to fool and easier to distract. Just look at the Trolls here, none of them understand how the Republicans stand on any issue.
Cynical demonstrates again the crude terms in which the right understands race and racism. Railing against “political correctness” is easy if it’s all just a skin game to you.
re 9:
And don’t forget to stop and smell the coffee.
Privatizing is bone fide insanity, especially in light of the fact that the stock market has been treading water for the last ten years. But let’s not kid ourselves, the Democratic team we have in the other Washington doesn’t have the nuts to implement the fix required to repair Social Security (raise the income threshold, for example).
Herrera’s a flip flopper.
14
Horrors!!! She’s a flip flopper? Oh, say it ain’t so, Joe. Oh, that’s right. She’s a Republican. She is whatever she needs to be for the audience at hand.
@1
You trust someone that tells one group of people one things and then turn around and tell another group of people the exact opposite thing?
What Voters cannot trust is a Pelosi who has added 5 Trillion to the debt on her watch when she vowed “No New Defecit Spending”.
And she will be handing back her private Jet and digs on Nov 3rd as a result
During this vicious Republican-caused recession, Social Security has been a lifeline for many senior citizens who otherwise would be begging in the streets. I guess we don’t have enough elderly street beggars yet to satisfy Herrera and other Republican candidates. Hungry old people + repeal minimum wage = cheaper labor and bigger profits for the Owning Class.
@17 Really? The GOP is the all-time champion of deficit spending and raising the public debt. But then, facts aren’t your strong suit, are they?
I gue3ss it isn’t all that strange that the 1% of the people who own 95% of the wealth in this country begrudge old people their Social Security checks and even want to take that away from them.
What happened to the THREE trillion, LD? Isn’t that what is was LAST TIME???
Wow…it must be EIGHT TRILLION now.
That wicked witch Pelosi must have been REALLY REALLY busy behind your backs. You all must be REALLY REALLY stupid to let that evil woman get away with EIGHT TRILLION added to the national debt.
Seattle bedwetter letter to The Atlantic:
You didn’t hear it from Paul and his Krugmaniacs, but honest economists agree that the Roosevelt Recession of 1937 – 1939 was mostly caused Social Security payroll taxes siphoning more than $2 billion from an economy still reeling from Hoover’s 1929 and FDR’s New Deal.
[Good Atlantic article here about golden medical discoveries and the perversion of Big Science.]
caused by
Oh dear. Did mean Massa Sanders say something unendorsable?
Did Carl Paladino say something bad about brainwashing? According to The Nation, while explicating its slobbering love affair with Doorknob Dan Savage, Paladino almost said something so bad it almost retroactively caused The Latin King Goonies to almost pretend they were SEIU or an Obamacare fanatic beating up or mutilating a conservative.
Wabbit says GOP takes the cake (and eats it too) for deficit spending and debt.
Tell it to FDR and BO.