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I thought you might be interested in the article from the FAIR web site. The following article will be appended to your message: The Derailing of Social Security By Diana Zuckerman For many years, Social Security was supposed to be the third rail of American politics--not to be touched by officials who valued their political lives. This unique power resulted from an irresistible combination of affection and clout: Social Security was appreciated as the most successful anti-poverty program in America, and its clout came from the millions of voters from all walks of life who received checks every month, without fail. But by late 1998 it was beginning to look like the 63-year-old program was facing forced retirement, and would be rejected for a younger, sexier model. Two conservative think tanks, with funding from investment firms with plenty to gain from a privatized system, have worked hard, and effectively, to undermine the loyalty of the U.S. public, and politicians. If Social Security as we know it is cast off like a rejected first wife by this Congress, it will be because of the slow but steady deterioration of public support over more than a decade. Dorcas Hardy, Reagan's Social Security commissioner, wanted to privatize Social Security, but the idea seemed so weird that it received little serious attention--especially from the public. It became obvious that privatization would not receive substantial public support until the public's faith in the Social Security system had dramatically eroded--but to do that the public needed to be convinced that there was a crisis, not in some far future time, but now. And so, the "fact" that Social Security was going broke, or was already bankrupt, became a recurring theme trumpeted by the pro-privatization pundits of the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute. The bankruptcy myth To read the rest of the article, please click on the link below. http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1462 This article was published on Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting's Website (http://www.fair.org).

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