Excellent comments by Kerry on "SS Privitization" on Russert Today! [View All]

[KoKo]

Russert went at him quoting crap from the "Concord Commission" and other statements Kerry made years ago, in typical Russert fashion...and Kerry blew him away with this from the transcript. I thought this was Kerry at his best..and particularly in this interview where he said exactly what needed to be said about the Bushies planned attack on SS. If the Democrats can stick to this then we can rout the Bushies. Read the rest of transcript it's at the very end ...I could only get these snips to be in the rules:

From the transcript:

SEN. KERRY: Precisely what I said in 1996 is "We should consider" a number of these things. We did consider them. I considered them. Others did. I rejected them. And I have said again and again throughout the campaign this last year, I do not believe we have to raise the retirement age. I'm not in favor of it. I am absolutely opposed to cutting benefits, and I believe we can save Social Security in any number of ways, Tim, other than what President Bush wants to do.

President Bush is hyping a phony crisis. The crisis in America today is 45 million Americans who don't have health care. The crisis are 11 million children that I just talked about that we ought to be covering with health care. You know, Social Security does not run out as the president says and become bankrupt in 2018. It can pay 100 percent of the benefits until 2042, and after 2042, it can pay 80 percent of the benefits. And all you need to do to move Social Security into safety, well into the 22nd century, into the next century, is to roll back part of George Bush's tax cut today. His tax cut takes three times the deficit of what is contained in Social Security.

Now, there are any number of other things that you could do to try to fix it smart. What President Bush wants to do is put at risk something that has stood up not as an investment program but an insurance program, an insurance against poverty. Without Social Security, 50 percent of seniors would be in poverty. Without Social Security, people with disabilities, widows, orphans, children would not get help. And the president is willing to put that at risk so that you have $940 billion in fees that go to Wall Street and a whole bunch of young people get to invest money in who knows what, and there's no guarantee that money will be there for them in their lifetime.

MR. RUSSERT: But people you know...

SEN. KERRY: It's a bad program...

MR. RUSSERT: People you know...

SEN. KERRY: ...and we should oppose it.

MR. RUSSERT: People you know and respect--Bob Kerrey, Democratic senator; Warren Rudman, former Republican senator...

SEN. KERRY: Right.

MR. RUSSERT: ...Pete Peterson, Concord Coalition--said this is it, straight out. "Ensuring a more sustainable system will require change, meaning that someone is going to have to give up something-- either in the form of higher contributions, lower benefits or a combination of both. No Social Security reform will succeed unless this fact is acknowledge up front."

SEN. KERRY: Tim...

MR. RUSSERT: You're saying raise taxes by rolling back the top bracket. You're raising taxes on richer Americans to pay for Social Security.

SEN. KERRY: Well, Tim, you can call it what you want. I mean, if you think rolling back to the level that we had in the 1990s, when an awful lot of our friends made an awful lot of money and people did very well in America--if you think that's raising taxes, then you can go ahead and have that definition. I think it's rolling back. I think it's rolling them back to a level of responsibility.

What you have today is irresponsibility. The president is going to add $4 trillion to the debt of this nation just with his tax cut, which is $1.9 trillion over the next 10 years, and his Social Security plan, which is about $1.6 trillion. It's almost $4 trillion, just in those two choices the president is making. Now, you can look at--look at this headline. Here's a headline that ought to send shudders through America: Central Banks Shun U.S. Assets. This was last week in The Financial Times. Why are they shunning U.S. assets? Because of the fiscal irresponsibility of this administration. And the president's plan on Social Security is not only dangerous for Social Security, it's dangerous for the fiscal long-term health of our country.

Now, I'm for creating wealth with young people. I think they have a right to try to have better means of being able to put money away for retirement. But there are plenty of ways to do it without privatizing, without putting it at risk. If the president would say to us, "Look, let's all get together and make sure Social Security is going to be saved the way President Clinton did, for the long term, and we're going to do it without privatizing it but we'll find one of these ways of doing it that's responsible," we will be at the table and we will join him to depoliticize it.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/ID/6886726/