Social Security becomes flashpoint in Romney-Perry battle

AP Photo/Jae C. Hong

Newport Beach, Calif. -- The day after his debut on the debate stage, where he played punching bag for his Republican rivals, Texas Gov. Rick Perry Thursday fled to the friendlier confines of an open-air political rally that attracted a crowd of roughly 300 people in Orange County. The GOP's fledgling front-runner for the nomination pointedly did not mention the hot new topic in the race: Social Security and Perry's labeling of the entitlement program as a "Ponzi scheme."

After Wednesday night's GOP debate, Perry's chief rival, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, tweaked his campaign strategy to go after Perry on the issue of preserving Social Security -- and go after him hard -- in what is rapidly becoming a two-person race. At the front of the pack until Perry made his entrance into the contest last month, the Romney campaign came out of the debate delighted with its progress arresting some of Perry's momentum after the Texan compared Social Security to a type of investor fraud poised to cheat future generations of retirees. "Rick Perry: Reckless, Wrong on Social Security" blared a headline from the Romney message machine on Thursday.

For his part, Perry's campaign was pleased that a candidate not known for his debate savvy committed no major gaffes in his first appearance with seven other Republicans at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley. Perry spokesman Robert Black said, "I think it was very obvious that the moderator and the other candidates had Governor Perry in their sights; they went after him pretty hard. But like any good air force pilot, he stood his ground, took his licks, and came out stronger than when he went in."

GOP race turns intense as Perry, Romney tussle

At the rally, Perry gave an abbreviated version of his stump speech and repeated his well-worn Romney dig about the party "needing a nominee that doesn't blur the differences" with President Obama. While his rivals continued to hit him, Perry struck out at Obama, characterizing him as a hands-off president. "He's been in office for 31 months," Perry said. "Some of you may count it in different ways -- That's 76 rounds of golf."

On the day Obama delivered a major speech to Congress about the economy and job creation, Perry belittled the president's call for additional government spending on infrastructure. "If you want to stimulate the economy, why don't you just eliminate the middleman from this equation -- the federal government -- and let the private sector keep and invest that money themselves," Perry said. "They do a lot better job than the government."

Still, it was hard to argue that Perry wasn't on the defensive. "The governor has never said he wants to get rid of Social Security. He wants to make it work," his spokesman, Black, huffed in response to questions from reporters about Romney's new line of attack.

During the debate, Perry asserted, as he has in the past, that "it's a Ponzi scheme to tell children that they're paying into a program that's going to be there. It's a 'monstrous lie,'" he said. Romney said to Perry, "You can't say that to tens of millions of Americans who live on Social Security and those who have lived on it. Our nominee has to be someone who isn't committed to abolishing Social Security, but is committed to saving Social Security." Perry stood by his Ponzi scheme analogy, and did not say one way or another whether he would preserve the system, although his spokesman said later he would preserve it for current beneficiaries and people "approaching" retirement. During their debate exchange, Perry told Romney, "Maybe it's time to have some provocative language in this country."

In the whirl of message spin that followed, Romney senior advisor Eric Fehrnstrom said Perry's position on Social Security would lose the election for the Republicans if he becomes the nominee. "There is no way that the Republican Party can be successful with a nominee who wants to dismantle Social Security," he said. "Mitt Romney believes that the Republican Party should be known as the party that saved and strengthened Social Security. That's how we're going to win next year against Obama."

For anyone who has grown weary of Romney's "I'm a businessman" stump speech, in which he sought to distinguish himself from the pack based on his private sector experience, change is in the air.

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On the trail in Iowa, N.H. and beyond

[raccettura]

Interesting.

[WeHappyFew]

Why do the both look like the corporate evil guy in a bad '80s action flick ?

[tsigili]

The issue is......SS is a ponzi scheme......it always was. However, every President who has proposed converting it into something else, has been rejected.

Until the system is converted to individual accounts, that the government can't access for funds to use for other purposes, it will continue to be a ponzi scheme, that will not work.

Like pensions.......SS as we know it, has to be converted to an individual account, owned (and mostly financed by individual mandatory contributions), by the individual.......and that account cannot be messed with, by the government.

The reason SS is in trouble right now.......is that it is the 4th largest holder of the US DEBT!

[jms133]

What do you expect from the Gov.of the state where 25%of the population has no health or medical coverage.The costs in Texas for healthcare have skyrocketed under Perry and government spending has dropped.Thousands of teachers have lost their jobs and there are billions in the states "rainy day fund"with 7billion supposed to be spent on education but it wasn't.The state budget tripled since he's been in office.He's trying to force pregnant women who are getting an abortion to have a unnecessary sonogram and listen to a description of the fetus.He wanted to secede from the US and accepts federal funds while decrying federal spending.His rented mansion(the Texas state house was being renovated and then burned)costs Texans $10,000 dollars a month.And he calls the safety net for millions of Americans a Ponzi scheme(social security).Whats next?A national religion?Please America,dont put this man in the White House.He will completely destroy America and really make us a third world country like Mexico where the top 2% control virtually all the wealth and everyone else----so what.

[lallfam]

i meant rooting LOL

[lallfam]

No doubt O'Bama is routing for Perry to get the nomination. I can't imagine how he could make the gaffe of calling social security a Ponzi scheme. As a senior citizen receiving social security and medicare benefits, such talk terrifies me.

[thebob-bob]

If one more born again bible-thumper from the failed State of Texas tells me again how PROUD they are of Texas's miserable record on education, environment and health care I think I'll puke. The arrogance of those ignorant hicks is just astounding. We saw the damage a fake Texan wannabe caused (2 wars and a wrecked economy), imagine if we let a real shtkicking secessionist take hold of the White House. Hey Perry! Stay home and protect your State from God's obvious wrath.

[jhallard]

I really wish that Perry's God with either smite him or call him back to his Purgatory. Oh, wait! He claims to be Christian not Catholic! In either case i wish he and Michelle would just disappear.