A
new ad campaign is about to be launched against Bush's Social Security "plan":
WASHINGTON Apr 3, 2005 -- A new organization created to defeat President Bush's plans for Social Security intends to open a television ad campaign this week depicting the proposal as the tip of an iceberg that will cut benefits and raise the national debt.
Erik Smith, a spokeman for ProtectYourCheck.org, said the group will spend nearly $1 milion to show the commercial on cable stations nationally over the next three weeks. Other ads will follow on broadcast stations, he said, aimed at individual lawmakers of both parties. [...]
The commercial by ProtectYourCheck is designed to strengthen that skepticism.
It opens with the picture of an iceberg jutting above the water. "The plan that George Bush and his backers in Congress have to privatize Social Security. Look below the surface and you'll find ... benefit checks cut almost in half. $5 trillion in new debt," says the announcer.
You can view the ad here.
The above story mentions in passing another important point: we're now at the halfway mark of the administration's 60-day push to improve public support for the Bush "plan". (Are we supposed to be calling it a "plan", now? Last I heard they were still denying they had any "plan" at all, because whenever they gave the details the approval numbers went down even further.) The 60-day timeline was the timeline the administration gave Congressional supporters to turn public opinion around, or consider cutting their losses.