It's not just Rick Perry: Most Republicans
want to lock Social Security behind bars
Greg Sargent:
The new Bloomberg poll has a fascinating finding that captures this problem in a nutshell: A big majority of Republicans agrees with his views on Social Security, including his claim that it’s a “Ponzi scheme”! Sixty five percent agree, while only 33 percent disagree.
Let’s go over that again: Only one third of Republicans thinks Social Security isn’t akin to a criminal enterprise.
Earlier this week, PPP came up with different results, finding just 33 percent of Republicans thought Social Security was a Ponzi scheme. Why the difference between the two polls? I suspect it has to do with question wording.
Bloomberg's survey asked:
Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry has called Social Security a Ponzi scheme, which is a fraud, and said it is a "monstrous lie" because young people will pay into the system but not be able to collect benefits. Do you agree or disagree?
While PPP asked:
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? “Social Security is a Ponzi Scheme.”
What that says to me is that as long as Rick Perry has a chance to explain his position, Republicans will eat it up—but in the context of a 30-second ad, he is vulnerable. It's true that he could offer an effective ad in response, explaining his position, but that would take him off message. So, in the context of the primary, the main value of this line of attack for Mitt Romney probably has less to do with getting Rick Perry in trouble for his position on Social Security than it does in forcing Rick Perry to play defense on an issue that he doesn't want to define his candidacy. Still, Republicans ultimately agree with Perry's position. It might not be what he wants to focus on, but he's on the right side, politically speaking.
If Rick Perry were to win the nomination, however, he'd be in a much worse position. According to Bloomberg's poll, there's a fairly even split with the general public on his Ponzi scheme claim (46 percent to 50 percent), but that assumes he has a chance to fully explain his answer. In the context of a general election, that would require devoting tons of resources to paid and free media, and he'd be devoting those resources merely to tread water.
As far as the horserace goes, Bloomberg finds Perry leading Romney by four points among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, 26-22 percent. That's a much smaller gap than PPP's survey during the same time period which showed Perry at 31 percent and Romney at 18 percent.