Jacob J. Lew Quotes
Social Security is something that we need to deal with, because people who are working today, who will retire in the future, people who are retired today, they have a right - and it's part of the compact that they can depend on their benefits. We should fix the long-term funding problem of Social Security because that's the right thing to do.
Lew, Jacob J. Interview by Candy Crowley. State of the Union, CNN, 13 Feb. 2011.
This is one of the rare occasions where the person appointed to lead a major governmental program, publicy trashed the program and told citizens that they would never receive the benefits that they had already paid for. She was a partisan political appointment who had no real credentials, preparation or previous experience and her statement was so overtly political that few took the statement seriously although there were well known problems that Congress could fix as soon as they have the political will to do so. In the 15 years since this statement not a single worker has failed to obtain any benefits to which he/she was entitled. To see why such a statement can never be made with any certainty, see {619986} which explains the essence of Social Security.
The lead paragraph of the story by staff writer Leon Anderson reported that “Senator Goldwater said here today he favors turning Social Security into a voluntary program.” Ever since the New Deal initiated Social Security, with major Republican opposition, Republicans had been split on whether to support it or try and end it by privatizing the program that is the most liked program of the American population. George W. Bush, tried to make the privatization of Social Security the centerpiece of his legislative program, but the people rose up in protest and it was defeated easily.
This is a classic statement from the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party. Here he not only criticizes the most successful and popular program in American History, but he describes it as a criminal fraud and then claims that Social Security is the biggest threat to our democracy—a bigger threat than Al Qaeda and terrorism, a greater threat than global warming, a greater threat than the housing bubble and the Great Recession. The Tea Party blindness to the effect of these gross exaggerated and obviously false claims is fascinating. He seems totally sincere and yet it is hard for voters to believe that he actually has faith in what he says—although perhaps faith is all he has.
Jacob Joseph "Jack" Lew is an American attorney and politician who served as the 76th United States Secretary of the Treasury from 2013 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he also served as the 25th White House Chief of Staff from 2012 to 2013 and Director of the Office of Management and Budget in both the Clinton Administration and Obama Administration.
