George W. Bush Quotes
I think it’s a nutty idea to fool around with the Social Security system and run the risk of hurting the people who have been saving all their lives…. It may be a new idea but it is a dumb one.
18 years later, his son—George W. Bush—made the “nutty idea” one of the main planks in his Presidential legislative program. After the younger Bush traveled the country selling his reform ideas, the public came down on the side of his father and rejected the President’s “nutty idea.”
George W. Bush, 41st President of the United States (Republican, TX), Republican Presidential Primary Debate with Pierre Dupont, 1987
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Privatizing Social Security was the main piece of proposed legislation of George W. Bush’s second term. It was a conservative mantra for several years. It was finally defeated by a grass roots campaign of what Bush and his supporters referred to as scare tactics—projecting what might happen if the plan were implemented and the stock market went down substantially. With the Meltdown of 2008, the market crashed and this is what Galbraith is referring to. It would have been much worse than any of the privatization opponents had suggestion that even the staunchest economic conservatives would no longer advocate for privatizing Social Security. It was never even suggested in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives of 2012-2013.
This is a classic statement from the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party. Here he not only criticizes the most successful and popular program in American History, but he describes it as a criminal fraud and then claims that Social Security is the biggest threat to our democracy—a bigger threat than Al Qaeda and terrorism, a greater threat than global warming, a greater threat than the housing bubble and the Great Recession. The Tea Party blindness to the effect of these gross exaggerated and obviously false claims is fascinating. He seems totally sincere and yet it is hard for voters to believe that he actually has faith in what he says—although perhaps faith is all he has.
George Walker Bush is an American politician and businessman who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush previously served as the 46th governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000. He was born into the Bush family; his father, George H. W. Bush, was the 41st president of the United States from 1989 to 1993.
