[PEN-L:9512] Re: Social Security quote?

[Doug Henwood <dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx>]

DOUG ORR wrote:

>Hopefully this won't get lost in the flood on nonsense that has been flowing
>the past few days.
>
>A month or so ago, someone posted a quote from some congressman who said
>that he knew there was no crisis in Social Security, but he could say
>that publicly because no one would believe him.  I would like to you
>the quote in the paper.  Can someone give me the quote and a cite as to
>where it was printed?

"'The AFL-CIO has had polling done, and they've convinced the unions and
convinced me that the rightwing propaganda has been so successful, if you
say there's no [forthcoming Social Security] crisis, people won't listen to
you,' says Representative Jerry Nadler, a progressive Democrat from New
York, who supports the president's Social Security plan.
   Does that mean the Democrats are backing a plan to fix a problem that
doesn't exist?
   'That's exactly right,' Nadler says. 'The problem is illusory, but you
have to act as if it's real.'"
  - Ruth Conniff, "Will Democrats Abandon Social Security," The Progressive,
March 1999

Nadler - who was rated by Roll Call a few years ago as the second
most left-wing member of Congress, after Maxine Waters, and who's
also probably one of the smarter members of that esteemed body - is
drawing on polls and focus groups done by the AFL-CIO. They found
that people are so convinced of the crisis that you lose all
credibility trying to argue to the contrary.

Doug