Social Security is "an absolute disgrace"

Talking Points Memo has a video where John McCain not only wants private accounts, but calls Social Security “an absolute disgrace” and “will not be there for the next generation”. Boomers are sponging off the next generation.

I will look for a transcript…this is not in his plan. If this is the way he plans to play it, I go public as well..

Update: Below the fold is a transcript on Social Security. The first two paragraphs appear to imply that Social Security was originally a mortgaging of the future.

The next appears to say there is no such thing as a generational connection, and that the current surplus pays for tax cuts for services provided now.

While there are some who say entitlements are broken, he excludes Medicare and other programs to say SS is broken specifically, without regard to the trustees report at all.

Update 2: Hat tip to reader yadda yadda (brooks) for a link to the full session. For video of that question and answer in full, see CSpan = mccain and click on “Watch” button below description. Question starts at 37:09 of video. Monday : Denver, CO : 1 hr. 19 min.

Update 3: Economist’s View has a post that includes Dean Baker, Kevin Drum, hilzoy, and Paul Krugman in posts, and of course the gang in comments.

Update 4: Bruce Webb on Social Security is the best you can find anywhere for accurate thinking on the subject.

Update 5: The Brookings Institute has a well read paper on Social Security that confirms much of what we say. Interpretation may vary on some particulars.

MCCAIN: Thank you very much. I’d like to start out by giving you a little straight talk. Under the present set-up, because we’ve mortgaged our children’s futures, you will not have Social Security benefits that present-day retirees have unless we fix it. And Americans have got to understand that.

Americans have got to understand that we are paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers in America today. And that’s a disgrace. It’s an absolute disgrace, and it’s got to be fixed.

Now, how do you fix it? Now, how do you fix it? You fix it by reaching across the aisle, and you say to the Democrats, “Sit down with me at the table. Sit down with me, the way Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill did the last time that Social Security was in deep trouble, and that was way back in 1983.”
Ronald Reagan, a conservative president from California, Tip O’Neill, the liberal Democrat from Massachusetts, sat down together, and they walked out of the White House together, and they said, “We’re going to fix Social Security.” And they did, for about 20, 30 years. Right, Hank?

And Hank Brown and I were in the Congress at the time. And we were proud. We were proud to see the kind of bipartisanship that was exhibited for future generations.

Well, now it’s broken again. Now it’s broken again. Nothing is forever in America. I want to promise you that I’ll say to the Democrats and I’ll say to the American people: “Here’s a chart. Here’s how much is coming in. Here’s how much is going out. And here’s where there’s more money going out than coming in, and here’s where there’s no money left.”

Now, are we going to hand it off to your generation to fix it? Or are we going to do the hard things? I want to be president to do the hard things. And I promise you that I’ll do everything in my power to make sure that not only Social Security but Medicare is addressed, and it has to be done in a bipartisan fashion. And Washington is broke, and we’re grid-locked by partisanship, and it’s going to change, and it’s got to change, and I will change it.