Demagogue

Earlier this week, Eugene posted a link to Daily Kos, which has a copy of the Republicans' official talking points for the president's Social Security reform plan. I briefly looked over the talking points and have a few notes to add to Eugene's:

* The talking points encourage Republicans to reassure the public that "there will be no benefit change for those (now) receiving Social Security and those near retirement," but the document never clarifies how the administration is defining "near retirement."

* These talking points seem to acknowledge problems inherent in moving toward a privatized system. The document warns Republicans not to oversell the president's private-accounts proposal because most Americans "will dismiss the notion" that they can "accumulate a million dollars in a personal account. They do not find it credible that the accounts will be easy to manage."

* Even though the previous talking point urges Republicans not to oversell the potential income from private accounts, another talking point actually encourages such hype: "Talk about how much more money they'd have for retirement if they themselves had been investing in a personal account all these years."