Last week’s Republican debate proved that Social Security is going to be a major topic of controversy throughout the 2012 election. Governor Rick Perry, Republican front-runner in GOP election, immediately became a target for this particular topic and drew a lot of attention from the media when he referred to the program of Social Security as a “Ponzi Scheme”. The Pew Research center released a recent survey and found that 87 percent of Republicans think Social Security has been a good program for the U.S. The Center next found that most Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to be left alone and are in favor of “reducing federal budgets”. Governor Perry’s stance on Social Security has drawn challenges from his fellow candidates including Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. On September 12, 2011, Perry and the other Republican candidates will participate in another debate and again discuss the Social Security issue.
Social Security is a controversial issue right now and there are many opinions on what should happen with the program, and how it will affect us in the long run. This topic has come up increasingly lately due to the debates of the Republican candidates and the over all opinions of candidates running in the coming up election. In the debates, the candidates all voice their opinions about Social Security and one that stands out is Rick Perry. He has called the program a “Ponzi Scheme” and “unconstitutional.” His opinion is one that people and other candidates, like Romney, do not understand. I do not completely agree with what Rick Perry has been saying about the Social Security program in these debates and I believe that he hasn’t even made up his own mind. In the first debate he sounded as if he wanted the program abolished and now he tells Romney that he had no intentions on getting rid of Social Security? Governor Perry is right to a degree; the Social Security system is not completely where it should be and may need a small bit of tweaking. This raises the point though that surveys are showing majority of republicans to not want to see changes with this program. With this said Perry’s statements could either help or hurt him. In my opinion, it was not the best idea to make. By calling social security a “Ponzi Scheme” he made an attack on a major topic of controversy, opposed majority of the people’s opinions, and since he said this he cannot take any of his statements back. Governor Perry, being the front-runner, also makes the Republican Party look bad or get a bad rep due to his attack on opposing this program. This will just lead Democrats to be all over the issue and bring this controversy to the Republican Party, using it against them. This leads us to addressing what needs to be the big change here: “reducing federal budgets” and “funding fixes.” These two things are what majority of the people want, especially republicans. Maybe Perry should make his over all decision and think about the voter’s opinions towards the Social Security issue and present his narrowed down ideals to us in the coming up debate.
In reference to the book Hardball, Rick Perry “hangs a lantern on his problems” when he tries putting the discussion of social security to rest. Click here to read the article: http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/story/2011-09-11/Rick-Perry-Social-Security/50362610/1
Link to article: http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2011/09/13/140427394/perrys-social-security-take-boon-for-opponents-bane-for-party
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