Bush Says Social Security Shortchanges Black Seniors

Just when I get myself all in a tizzy over Hillary's attempt to turn abortion politics on it's head, here comes George Bush showing he can play the same game. Yet in his case, he's got it right:

Buffalo News: Race became a significant factor in the debate over Social Security on Tuesday when President Bush told black leaders that the government retirement program shortchanged blacks, whose relatively shorter life span meant they paid more in payroll taxes than they eventually received in benefits.

. . . The conversation demonstrated the White House's determination to build on outreach efforts to blacks that proved effective in battleground states last year, adding Social Security to a list of moral issues - such as opposition to same-sex marriage and support for faith-based social programs - that Republicans see as providing common ground with black conservatives.

The President is absolutely correct to frame this issue in this manner. And Social Security is not the only area where Democrats have built discrimination into public policy. Inner city education is another place where Democrats implicitly effect a racist agenda. Most large cities are Democrat voting pockets and have been run by Democrats since at least the late 1950's. Public education policy there continues to keep academic achievement at its worst and binds minorities into low "self-esteem" and poverty.

But I digress. . . .

The President now needs to take Larry Kudlow's advice and shift the argument away from the difficult transition to private Social Security accounts and rather give the vision for changing the Social Security system to make it work for generations to come.