Doug Henwood wrote:
> The survey finds that Bush’s association with a
> plan to limit the growth of Social Security
> benefits appears to undermine support for the
> concept. Most Americans say they would support
> limiting the growth of benefits for wealthy and
> middle-income retirees, while keeping the current
> system intact for lower-income people. But
> support is significantly lower when the proposal
> is explicitly associated with Bush. By a 53% to
> 36% margin, Americans generally favor the idea of
> limiting benefit growth for wealthy and
> middle-income Americans, but when the same idea
> is preceded by the phrase "George W. Bush has
> proposed..." the public is divided (45% in favor,
> 43% opposed).
This is probably _very_ bad news for the future of social security, for it means that the system can be butchered as soon as a nominally liberal president is elected. We can't depend on every DP president being unable to keep his pants buttoned. Those depending on social security will just have to hope that the Republicans succeed in nominating and electing a candidate at least as incompetent and unpopular as Bush is now.
Carrol