archy

Why do they give a damn
Yet another poll is out saying most people hate the Republicans’ ideas for Social Security, as well they should. However, “81 percent of respondents believed that the program would need major changes in the coming years.” This raises some questions in my mind as to the internal breakdown of the Republican base on this issue.

The official Party position is that Social Security will have WMDs shortfalls in about forty years. They say they don’t have a plan, but when they get a plan it will guarantee solvency for the program for eternity. Eternity is a long time. A lot of things can happen in an eternity. While I admire their confidence, I have to wonder if it is shared by the entire base.

Are the fundamentalist end-timers among that 81 percent who think something major needs to be done? And, if so, why? Do they really think they are going to still need Social Security in forty years? If so, their idea of end times with this being the last generation and all is quite a bit different than I would expect. Maybe they’re thinking in terms of the generations of Enoch, Methuselah, and Noah, who each lived for many hundreds of years. That should give them a century or two margin of error for the definition of the last generation. Or maybe they don’t have a lot of confidence in the powers of prophetic interpretation claimed by Lindsey and Lehaye. In that case it might be wise to cover all their bases and keep the Social Security fund around a little longer.

If they truly had confidence in their predictions, I would expect their attitude toward the fund to be a snort of derision and cavalier cry of “spend it all.” I’m not hearing that. So, why do they give a damn what happens to Social Security?