Friday, February 04, 2005

Criminal Silence

Democrat Mary Landrieu is one of my United States Senators. She has been unwilling so far to articulate any kind of position, pro or con, on Bush's Social Security phase-out plan.

I went to her US Senate website looking for a speech, a press release, anything.

I had to go all the way back to 2001 to find something resembling an affirmative statement of support for Social Security:

Washington, D.C. (June 12) – U.S. Senator Mary L. Landrieu (D-La.) today joined a coalition of eight other women Senators in calling on President George W. Bush to work with them on strengthening Social Security benefits.

"When Social Security was created it was designed to be based on earnings," Sen. Landrieu explained. "But women do lots of valuable work and don't receive any money for it. Raising children, caring for aging parents or a spouse who is ill are not taken into account."

"We need to think about how we can really honor motherhood, honor the valuable work mothers do even if they don't receive a paycheck for it. Their work makes our nation stronger and adds to our Gross National Product," Sen. Landrieu said.

In light of current events, the only statement available from a United States senator on the subject of Social Security is a four year old press release suggesting the need to make government pensions available to homemakers?

Meanwhile, Bush is barnstorming the nation trying to gin up popular support to dismantle the institution altogether.

In plain language, senator, are you fer it or agin it?

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