Jeff Danziger lives in New York City. He is represented by CWS Syndicate and the Washington Post Writers Group. He is the recipient of the Herblock Prize and the Thomas Nast (Landau) Prize. He served in the US Army in Vietnam and was awarded the Bronze Star and the Air Medal. He has published eleven books of cartoons and one novel. Visit him at DanzigerCartoons.com.
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Arizona Republican Senate candidate Blake Masters
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Donald Trump's hand-picked candidate Blake Masters is the latest to endorse the unpopular idea.
The front-runner in the GOP primary to run for Senate in Arizona in November against Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly suggested on June 23 that Social Security should be privatized, an approach to the popular government program that experts say could jeopardize a vital financial lifeline for retired Americans.
"We need fresh and innovative thinking," said venture capitalist Blake Masters, a candidate endorsed by former President Donald Trump and bankrolled by right-wing investor Peter Thiel, said at a forum hosted by the right-wing advocacy group FreedomWorks. "Maybe we should privatize Social Security, right? Private retirement accounts, get the government out of it."
Masters is the second GOP candidate running for Senate in Arizona to call for privatizing the overwhelmingly popular government program that provides income to retired and disabled adults, after Republican Jim Lamon, whose campaign website posits as a model for the retirement program, "Option for every worker to enjoy the benefit from investment in the US economy while also creating a tangible, inheritable asset for their children, instead of the government-controlled trust fund model."
The Arizona Republicans are among a number of GOP candidates running for Senate who support privatizing the program, including New Hampshire GOP candidate Kevin Smith, who, according to audio recorded at an event hosted by the New Boston Republican Committee, said in response to a question about financial measures, "I think another thing we can look at is, in the future, reforming Social Security — not touching anyone's Social Security in here — we've all paid into the system, and I would not propose that at all. But for my kids who haven't paid into the system yet, and my grandkids who aren't born yet going from a defined benefit plan to a defined contribution plan, for them. So, but that's, those are for future generations."
Republicans have been pushing to privatize the program for years, calling for investment of a worker's Social Security payroll taxes in a private, individual account. Experts say it's a risky move that would leave workers' retirement at the whim of the stock market rather than guarantee income for retirees.
"In a privatized system, workers' retirement income would depend upon many factors: the performance of the stock market, luck, investment savvy, the timing of retirement (i.e., whether the stock market was up or down), and other factors outside a worker's control. Social Security's income guarantee would be lost, and it would no longer serve as a source of ensured income for the elderly, especially lower-income workers, women, and minorities," according to a 2020 report published by the nonprofit think tank Economic Policy Institute.
The loss of that guaranteed income could be financially devastating, given that one in four older adults receive 90% of their income from Social Security benefits, according to the research and policy organization Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Social Security is especially important in Arizona, which has a large portion of retirees. It is the second-most popular state for retirees over age 60, behind only Florida, according to AARP, a lobby for older Americans. According to Census Bureau statistics, 18.5 percent of Arizona's population is over the age of 65.
Former President George W. Bush abandoned an effort to partially privatize the program in 2005; among those opposing the plan was AARP.
The outcome of the Arizona Senate race will be critical to which party controls the Senate, currently split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans. Republicans need to net just one seat to take control of the majority.
Inside Elections, a nonpartisan political handicapping outlet, rates the race a toss-up.
Incumbent Sen. Kelly has said he won't support privatizing the program.
"I've got a message for Arizonans: I will protect Social Security and Medicare. Period," Kelly said in a campaign ad that ran during the 2020 special election he won to fill the seat of the late Republican Sen. John McCain.
Reprinted with permission from American Independent.
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Polls Show Democrats Energized In Midterm By Supreme Court Abortion Ruling
@kerryeleveld
June 28 | 2022
Abortion rights demonstration outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.
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For the last several months, nearly all political analysts have predicted November would be a blood bath for Democrats based on historical trends, President Joe Biden's low approval ratings, and polling data suggesting Republican voters were far more motivated to vote in November.
But fresh polling suggests the so-called enthusiasm gap got a jolting disruption in the wake of Friday's Supreme Court ruling gutting Roe v. Wade.
Two new polls from CBS News/YouGov and NPR/PBS Newshour/Marist suggest Democrats are far more likely to take their disgust to the polls following the high court's decision to strip the constitutional right to an abortion.
NPR writes that the issue injects "volatility into the 2022 midterms," citing the fact that 78 percent of Democrats say the court's ruling makes them more likely to vote this fall—24 points higher than the number of Republicans who say the same.
The CBS poll similarly found the decision yielded a 30-point advantage for Democrats, with more than twice as many Democratic voters as Republicans saying the ruling makes the more likely to vote in November.
The ruling is also particularly salient among groups that Democrats critically need to show up at the polls and support them: women, people of color, and college-educated voters.
The divide between college-educated voters and non-college voters is downright massive, with 69 percent of college graduates opposing the ruling, according to the NPR survey. But voters who didn't graduate from college are evenly divided on the matter, with 47 percent supporting the decision and 47 percent opposing.
Among women, 59 percent oppose the ruling while just 38 percent support it. In addition, 60 percent of nonwhites oppose the ruling while 54 percent of whites oppose it, according to NPR.
NPR also found a notable uptick in people who generally say they would prefer to vote for a Democratic congressional candidate over a Republican one, or what analysts commonly refer to as the “generic ballot.” In the survey, 48 percent now say they are more likely to vote for a Democrat in the fall while 41percent count themselves more likely to vote for a Republican. In April, Republicans led the survey’s generic ballot question poll 47 percent to 44 percent. Other polls have also found a shift toward Democrats in the generic ballot following the decision to overturn Roe.
All of these factors are positive signs for the Democratic Party, which was facing tough odds in November. While increased enthusiasm among Democratic voting blocs doesn't guarantee wins, it certainly gives Democrats a fighting chance. Midterms are won and lost based on which party’s base voters turn out (rather than persuasion). Democrats need to recreate the coalition of voters of color, women, and suburban voters who gave them a House majority in 2018 in order to compete this fall. The Supreme Court’s radical ruling upending 50 years of settled law on abortion is animating that exact coalition.
Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.
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