Paul Ryan's Eddie Haskell impression bombs at the AARP
by digby
It looks as if not all the seniors are enamored of that nice young man Paul Ryan. (And yes, you probably have to be eligible for the AARP to know who Eddie Haskell is ...):
Here's the thing. The younger seniors (and keep in mind AARP says it starts at 50) are the most engaged in politics and are particularly interested in their own ability to keep bread on the table and stay in reasonably decent health in their elder years. They follow these issues intently.
Now, some of them watch Fox News all day and think the system is about the implode and so the system must be destroyed in order to save it. But even on its best day, Fox News only reaches a couple million people and at last census count there were 40.3 million people age 65, and it's growing every day with baby boomers, not all of whom are wingnuts. I don't know that Ryan can count on all of them being as gullible as the 2010 mid-term electorate was.
Update: On the other hand, President Ward Cleaver comes through with some common sense:
President Barack Obama revived a 2008 campaign promise on Friday, telling the crowd at an AARP forum that he would be open to raising the level of income on which Americans pay Social Security taxes.
"You know, I do think that looking at changing the cap is an important aspect of putting Social Security on a more stable footing," Obama said, via satellite feed. "And what I've said is, is that I'm willing to work with Republicans and examine all their ideas, but what I'm not going to do, as a matter of principle, is to slash benefits or privatize Social Security and suddenly turn it over to Wall Street -- because we saw what could happen back in 2008 and 2009 when the stock market crashed, and we are still recovering from that."
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