Senator Jon Corzine of New Jersey has
sent a letter to President Bush demanding that he denounce the USA Next smears of AARP. In a press release announcing the letter Senator Corzine refers to the "distorted and dishonorable ad campaign against AARP" by USA Next.
Corzine begins by asking Bush to repudiate the USA Next tactics and makes clear their association to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, whose campaign Corzine refers to as lacking in honesty and honorable intentions:
Dear President Bush:
Without delay or ambiguity, I urge you to repudiate the tactics employed by USA Next and to restore civility and honor to the on-going Social Security dialogue.
Corzine continues:
USA Next, led by former Reagan and Bush official Charlie Jarvis, has deputized itself to engage the AARP in `hand-to-hand combat' during the ongoing Social Security debate. During this process the organization has aligned itself with, and retained the services of, the same consultants and attack artists that spearheaded the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth advertising campaign last year - an effort which was funded, at least in part, by your supporters. Time and external scrutiny revealed the Swift Boat campaign to lack both accuracy and honorable intentions.
Corzine uses strong words to remind the President that Social Security is an important safety net and that discussions about its future need to be honorable and open. He then labels USA Next as "mercenaries" who are trying to "smear opponents".
Deploying mercenaries to smear opponents of your plan is beneath the dignity of the American people and not an honorable tactic during this American conversation.
Senator Corzine notes that USA Next has (falsely) accused AARP of "lying to the public" before getting to the despicable advertisement put out by the group.
Worse yet is USA Next's incendiary advertisement which implies that the AARP's agenda includes denouncing American servicemen and women and supporting gay marriage. The motive for USA Next's irresponsible use of such hot button issues is not difficult to decipher - if you can't attack the message, attack the messenger - no matter how dishonest and off base those attacks become.
It's difficult to imagine the partisan contortions that must take place to see the use by USA Next of gay marriage as anything but an appeal to anti-gay bigotry. AARP of course does not take a position on gay marriage and exists as an advocate for elderly Americans. Corzine rightly notes that instead of engaging the AARP in debate on the merits of their Social Security position they instead have chosen the low road of attacking the messenger.
Of course, Republicans recently were quite happy to have the AARP as an ally. Their drug reform bill was helped to passage partially by the efforts of the AARP which endorsed the legislation. Corzine reminds the President of his recent alliance with AARP and calls on him to denounce the incendiary smears put forth for him by USA Next.
Mr. President, I need not remind you that the AARP's support of your prescription drug plan was crucial to its passage. While I disagreed with your plan and the AARP's decision to endorse it, you found the AARP to be an honorable organization and welcomed their support. While our views on Social Security differ, I hope you will join me in standing with the AARP and denouncing USA Next's incendiary tactics.
Advertisements such as the one described above - consistent in tone with the discredited Swift Boat ads - have absolutely no place in the Social Security debate. I urge you, in no uncertain terms, to repudiate USA Next and these tactics and to call for a civil dialogue at this critical crossroads for Social Security.
Whether the letter to President Bush will be answered is certainly in question. The unlikeliest possibility of all would seem to be that the President would actually denounce the tactics of USA Next. Regardless, Senator Corzine is a strong ally of AARP, as well as a strong opponent of the President's plan to dismantle Social Security who can be counted on to keep the heat on President Bush.
Senator Corzine had two days earlier stood with the AARP in a town hall meeting to discuss Social Security. At that meeting, he told attendees that privatizing Social Security would result in steep benefit cuts while steeply raising the national debt. Senator Corzine described the value of Social Security this way:
Thanks to Social Security, we've reduced poverty among America's seniors from about 50 percent to about 10 percent. Social Security is not a handout. It isn't welfare. It's an earned benefit that promotes and rewards work. Social Security guarantees that regardless of the state of the economy, the rate of inflation, the fluctuations in financial markets, or the length of one's life, every contributing American will have a basic level of financial security - whether it's in retirement or if you become disabled or lose a parent.
The important point above is that no matter the economic variables or the state of a citizen's health, Social Security will be there for them. This guarantee of a basic level of financial security would be undone by a system in which market risk and health risk affect each American differently. Social Security is a safety net that is designed to make sure that even those who are unlucky in life, or just plan poorly for the future will still be able to avoid poverty. Corzine notes this and makes the point that the Presidents plan will saddle the nations children and grandchildren with a great debt. The reason? Conservative idealogues want the program killed.
"It has been our nation's goal to pass along a society to our children better than the one we found," said Corzine. "Saddling our children and grandchildren with greater and greater debt as the President's plan would do is immoral and against our values as a society. Privatizing Social Security is risky, prohibitively expensive and does nothing to strengthen the program for the long-term. Privatization is simply an effort by ideologues to dismantle a program which they have never supported in the first place."
Corzine said going to private accounts would make the financial challenges facing Social Security worse, not better, by exhausting the trust fund sooner and moving up the date at which Social Security becomes insolvent. Corzine also said the President's plan would require steep and painful benefit cuts to pay for risky private accounts.
Benefit cuts and debt to our children to pay for more risk?
Senator Corzine has forcefully told President Bush that is not acceptable.