(np) truly heinous

[Michael Bailey]

wow, resounding rebuttal.
I stand corrected...

also I said the other day the Chums were sent to dissuade the
Vormance Expedition and failed without really trying...

but I totally forgot that phrase "any means
short of force" in their instructions,
and they did strenuously try moral suasion so my
whole take was woefully wrong there too




On Sat, May 1, 2010 at 6:40 AM, Monte Davis <montedavis at verizon.net> wrote:

> Michael Bailey sez:
>
> >truly heinous was the Reagan Administration's gutting Social Security
> in order to finance tax cuts and Star Wars..
>
> Umm... I have little to say for the Gipper, but:
>
> "Reagan also vastly expanded one of the largest federal domestic programs,
> Social Security. Before becoming president, he had often openly mused, much
> to the alarm of his politically sensitive staff, about restructuring Social
> Security to allow individuals to opt out of the system--an antecedent of
> today's privatization plans. At the start of his administration, with
> Social
> Security teetering on the brink of insolvency, Reagan attempted to push
> through immediate draconian cuts to the program. But the Senate unanimously
> rebuked his plan, and the GOP lost 26 House seats in the 1982 midterm
> elections, largely as a result of this overreach.
>
> "The following year, Reagan made one of the greatest ideological
> about-faces
> in the history of the presidency, agreeing to a $165 billion bailout of
> Social Security. In almost every way, the bailout flew in the face of
> conservative ideology. It dramatically increased payroll taxes on employees
> and employers, brought a whole new class of recipients--new federal
> workers--into the system, and, for the first time, taxed Social Security
> benefits, and did so in the most liberal way: only those of upper-income
> recipients. (As an added affront to conservatives, the tax wasn't indexed
> to
> inflation, meaning that more and more people have gradually had to pay it
> over time.).."
>
> http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0301.green.html
>
>
>
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