This line of attack from AP is what I would consider underwhelming:
Although Republican presidential candidate John McCain has called Social Security “a disgrace,” he still cashes his own retirement check every month.
“I’m receiving the benefits, the system is broken and, unfortunately, my children and grandchildren, according to the trustees of the Social Security system, will not have the same benefits the present retirees have,” McCain told reporters Thursday on his campaign bus.
McCain’s 2007 tax return shows Social Security benefits of $23,157 for the year, an average of $1,929.75 a month. He said he started receiving the payments “whenever I was eligible.”
So what? I rail against the government on a daily basis, but I still vote and use public roads. McCain paid into the system, he is entitled to his payments. There is no hypocrisy here.
If you want to focus on McCain and social security, I would point to the fact that he appears to not understand how the system works.
Conservatively Liberal
I’ll start this one off topic right away. ;)
Voters in San Fransisco will have a chance to memorialize George W. Bush by renaming a building in his honor.
I hope it passes.
Skippy-san
Nothing wrong with McCain getting Social Security. I would point out though that on one retirement issue he is on the wrong side of the fence. He has consistently failed to support reform of the Uniformed Services Former Spouse Protection Act-the law that gives away the hard earned retainer pay of retired service members. McCain retired as a Captain, was divorced and unlike me does not have to fork over 37% of a hard earned retirement to his ex wife. Veterans groups have beseeched him to stand up for reform of the bad law-and he turns a deaf ear.
TR
This is probably a fig leaf so the AP can claim “balance” in their ever more lopsided coverage.
“Well, yes, we claimed Obama was an unpatriotic ignorant elitist with dangerous friends, but we also pointed out that McCain gets a social security check!”
gypsy howell
He called it a “disgrace” because current workers are funding the benefits of the older retirees. So, even though that’s how the SocSec system was set up, and even though that’s how it’s operated (quite nicely, thankyew) for 60+ years, for some reason John McCain thinks it’s a “disgrace” that younger workers are funding the retirement of people just like him. Not enough of a disgrace of course to actually refuse the checks. Even though he still draws a $150,000+ government salary as a senator. And even though he still draws disability benefits of $58,000 a year as a wounded veteran. And let’s not even talk about Cindy’s wealth.
I’m sure John McCain is perfectly well aware of how the Social Security system works (as I’m sure he’s aware that all of us much-maligned boomers have been paying DOUBLE into the system our whole working lives to prefund our own retirement). What he’s counting on is that you and I, the American public, don’t know how the system works.
No, you see, what John McCain wants us all to think is that the system which he currently benefits from is inherently UNFAIR to younger workers, and MUST BE STOPPED. Y’know, stopped right after he gets all HIS benefits.
Typical Republican douchebaggery – benefits for me but not for thee.
Hedley Lamarr
I’m the same age as the old Senator and he gets more than ten times what I do. That’s called biting the hand that feeds you, unless you count his icy spouse’s spoon.
TR
No, let’s talk about it.
If the GOP is intent on making Michelle Obama a campaign issue, then I think it’s fair game to start talking about the pill-popping, charity-robbing, husband-stealing, dominatrix-dressing spoiled beer heiress with the eight homes, private plane, gigantic sense of entitlement, $750,000 in credit card debt and unpaid taxes.
Candidates’ wives should be a non-issue, but if the Republicans want to make it an issue, bring it on. I’m pretty sure the one with working-class roots and common sense is going to resonate more than the spoiled, addicted rich girl who was investigated by the DEA.
Elvis Elvisberg
I agree with TR (both times around). Now they think they can call it even, by putting out this POS that no one cares about and no one should care about. There’s other stuff out there, AP.
RSA
Maybe McCain is putting away a nest egg in case Cindy dumps him for a younger trophy husband.
In general, I think John’s right. McCain paid into the system, and there are lots of problems with means testing for Social Security. One is simply perception: It makes Social Security look like a welfare program.
jimBOB
While attacking McCain for taking SS while disparaging it is weak from a logical point of view, it does have the virtue of being easy to understand: He thinks the system is a “disgrace,” but takes its money anyway.
It’s the same reason why lies about a blow job have more political salience than lies about, say, Social Security. Any idiot (which is to say, any teevee network reporter) can make the connections; understanding Social Security lies means actually knowing something about the subject, which leaves out much of the voting population and nearly all the media.
E Stamm
Why does McCain get Social Security? I thought that if people made above a certain amount then Social Security is cut by a dollar for every dollar above that amount (or something like that). I’d have thought that making $170,000 a year would have chopped that Social Security check up into tiny pieces. If not, then what gives? Does a government paycheck not count?
calipygian
I don’t understand why McCain is getting a SS check if he is still employed and makes a shit ton of money.
The Other Ed
Well, to give it a little more context, John McCain is a Federal Triple Dipper. He collects:
Social Security
Military Pension
Senate Salary
All while living off his wife’s $100 Million+ fortune.
Gee, that John McCain is such an “authentic” guy! He lives just like all the rest of us!
Napoleon
She does have her good points.
Cruel Jest
McCain’s been sucking off the government (read: my goddamn money) since the day he was born. Then he has the nerve to criticize shit he doesn’t know about meanwhile cashing the check? Tell’s me he’s gonna fix it? Wow. Arrogant and stupid must be the new black.
Napoleon
My dad worked for the federal government and their system was completely seperate from SS. He didn’t pay into SS (which makes me wonder how McCain qualifies in the first place, has he ever had a private sector job?) and in order for him to qualify he counted a private job he worked at before his government job, and he went into private practice afterward. So its entirely plausable that SS will ignore a federal government job’s income.
rachel
Which are negated by the spoiled beer.
rachel
Wow, there’s a lot more money in spoiled beer than I’d ever dreamt.
dan robinson
Is this another one of John McCain’s ‘senior’ moments, or is he just clueless?
MattF
Given that ‘Obama = arrogant’ was apparently the lead item on the right-wing talking points memo this week, ‘McCain = Married an heiress and takes Social Security’ isn’t so bad.
BC
Although civilian Federal workers do not pay into Social Security, members of the military do. I think this is why McCain collects Social Security – he paid into while in Navy. I’m not sure how a retirement from the Senate will impact his Social Security – for civil service, any SS payment is decreased $1 for every $2 of civil service annuity. As to why he can receive SS and still work: once a person reaches age 70, the rule on outside earnings no longer applies. I’m also against means testing, but unless you need to be on SS to be eligible for Medicare, I think people with ample means – 7 figures per year, for instance – should forego their SS check. They don’t need it anyway.
asl
The only rationale for getting McCain on this one is that ‘disgrace’ could be synonymous with ‘unethical’. Otherwise, you’re right. So what?
jake
Yes, but we’ve already established that the test for being (by way of example) John Cole is rather less stringent that the test for being (by way of another example) John McCain, the man who would be Bush 2.0 when he becomes President of the United States of America.
Except that he insists that he isn’t Bush 2.0 and the fact that he keeps adopting Bush’s policies is caused by sunspots.
Or something.
Is he entitled to his SS payments? Sure. Is he entitled to say I got mine but you won’t get yours?
Nope.
I’d also disagree about the level of hypocrisy required to pretend you’re just plain folks but also can’t quite remember when a big fat check started showing up in the mail.
calipygian
Military people do pay into social security. Its kind of screwy though because I paid into Social Security based on my taxable income, not my actual income. So my social security benefit will be based on my $35,000/yr taxable income and not my almost $70,000/yr that I actually got paid (Base pay/proficiency pay is taxable plus my non-taxable housing and food allowances).
I think everyone who pays in should be eligible to collect, but I also think that every single earned and unearned dollar should be subject to social security tax. Every dollar of payroll and every dollar of capital gains, regardless.
Maybe if they did that they could drop the social securtiy tax rate and the talk about how social security is insolvent would end.
Sean Hannity would cry though. Boo hoo.
fester bestertester
yeah, it’s fine for him to get social security. but, wingnuts were all pointing out that everything Al Gore said was invalidated by his big house. He turned a light on, therefore he’s incorrect on global warming. McCain collects social security so he can’t really think it needs fixing – he certainly doesn’t need it, so he shouldn’t collect it – put his money where his mouth is.
Just Some Fuckhead
The North Vietnamese broke John McCain’s integrity, my friends. Good news: it appears John McCain has enough money to pay us back for those five planes he trashed.
joe
Please please please please run on Social Security privatization.
Oh please, oh please, oh please.
At a minimum, Barack Obama should accuse McCain, and all Republicans, of being philosophically opposed to Social Security. Worst case scenario, McCain alienates his wingnut/war-libertarian supporters by defending a public retirement system.
Rosali
Let’s talk about Cindy. Teresa Heinz Kerry’s wealth was fair game in 2004.
TR
Agreed. John McCain is the living embodiment of the right wing and media’s caricature of John Kerry.
They said Kerry didn’t deserve his purple heart and gave himself the wounds, but there’s much much more evidence that McCain lost five planes and caused the Forrestal fire.
They said Kerry was a flip-flopper because of the “voted for it before I voted against it” flub, but McCain has made much worse flubs and, of course, has flip-flopped 63 times on much bigger issues.
They said Kerry was a man living off the wealth of his second wife, but McCain’s the one defaulting on taxes on one of his eight homes and running up $750,000 in credit card debt, and meanwhile hiding behind his wife’s skirts in not releasing her full tax returns.
Everything John Kerry was skewered for in 2004, John McCain has done ten times over, and yet not a peep from the media about any of it.
I’d call the media a bunch of whores, but at least whores have the intelligence to demand more than barbecue for their services.
AkaDad
This wouldn’t be an issue if Social Security was privatized.
scarshapedstar
QOTD.
Zifnab
Social Security? More like socialism security.
That said, the amount you collect on SS is supposed to be proportional to what you pay in. Under the current system, I’m not sure if taking the cap off really fixes the problem, per say. The trust fund will get larger, true, but then those people putting in 6.2% of a million dollars / year are going to want to collect on it when they retire. Maybe I’m not entirely familiar with how SS works, but this just seems like buck-passing to me.
Either way, SS isn’t actually broken. That’s just a bunch of bullshit scary talk to get people to bend over one more time.
Rick Massimo
It’s basically a non-story; I think it only has relevance as a response to those who spout blather like “Oh, the stimulus payments were a bad idea? So you gave yours back, right? RIGHT??? HAHA I stick my fingers in my ears and run off yelling about how I won.”
BrianD
“So what? I rail against the government on a daily basis, but I still vote and use public roads.”
The difference here is that [I don’t think] you’ve ever made the argument that public roads or voting are, by their very nature, a disgrace.
tim
Why is it out of line to expect a rich person who receives government checks he doesn’t need from a program he denounces, to at least make the effort to return those checks and to use doing so as an opportunity to point out what is wrong with said program?
Instead, he just takes the cash? How is that not ridiculously slimey?
And I’m sick of hearing “well, so and so paid into the program, so…” Please. McCain paid in far, far less than he has taken out, which of course is what is stupid about rich people taking SS payments, which of course should be means tested. IT IS a welfare program. What’s wrong with that?
Just as farm subsidies are welfare for farmers, even though everyone pretends the farmers somehow “earn” their lavish payments by not working their land.
This country is so fucked up.
Tim Trollinskenstein
Joshua Norton
I recently read a whining op ed hit-piece by wingnut Ruben Navarrette who claims the “greedy boomers” shouldn’t claim the money they paid in to the system because it would be “unfair” for the working people to “support” them. Someone should explain to these walking synapse misfires that the so-called Boomers have been paying DOUBLE since the early 80’s. They were paying for the people receiving SS up til now and also paying into the trust fund itself to fund their own retirement. Now you have know-nothings saying that collecting what is truly their own money is the height of arrogance and greed.
Hello Pot? This is Kettle….
Andrew
If Cole has ever been to Pennsylvania, then he has surely called the roads a disgrace.
The difference is that JC isn’t calling the roads a disgrace in hopes of eliminating public roads, but rather hoping to get better ones. When Grover Norquist or whoever bitches about publicly funded roads and then drives on them, he is a hypocrite. When McCain bitches about SS and then collects it, he is indeed being a hypocrite.
Punchy
Why does McCant even accept S.S. bennys if his old lady is worth gazillions? why not donate it–and make a HUGE press confy to announce it–to Alz’s or Parky’s diseases? The McCant media man-crush that would develop would lead to about 143 blow-jobs from Howie Kurtz and Froomkin alone.
Joe Max
Well, we need something to offset the screeching about Al Gore being driven around in cars.
Joshua Norton
Maybe he did. And then forgot about it.
Pb
Weak. He also gets his 100% disability pension — $58,358, tax-free. He “was retired as disabled”, which is a pretty neat trick for a Presidential candidate with a (theoretically) full-time job in the Senate. Or maybe that’s why he doesn’t show up for the votes?
The Moar You Know
Yeah, but Teresa was French. Or gay. Or French and gay. Look, it doesn’t matter, she was an eeevul librul and Cindy McCain is a good
cuntRepublican so shut up, that’s why.calipygian
In many cases, thats just an administrative designation. I’m going through the VA compensation process right now and hoping that my sleep apnea diagnosis will get me a 50% disability rating like the disability compensation guide says.
It doesn’t mean I’m going to quit riding my bike 30 miles a day, quit scuba diving or go out and get a Rascal. It just means I get compensation for conditions that developed during or were exacerbated by military service.
dan robinson
OT:
Fester Bestertester. Funny. That his who I think about whenever I see a picture of John Hagee.
jake
Or he could just decline the benefit. Imagine that! Then the money could go to some “Hard Working American.” I guess McRampStrike wants us to believe that the evile gubbermint is forcing him to take its filthy lucre. Oh the humanity!
cyntax
Meh. That’s apples to oranges; just cause you can’t serve as a soldier doesn’t mean there aren’t other things you can do in the civillian world. Now sure, he doesn’t need the money, but he obviously made some sacrifices for it so I think advancing that line of argument just gives him an opportunity to burnish his POW creds (again).
Where you’re point really seems to gain traction in my opinion is when you contrast the fact that McSame is availing himself of said pension but voting against things like the new GI Bill. And from there the next place to look is his record on veterans issues like Agent Orange, Gulf War Syndrome, and PTSD treatment for Iraq/Afghanistan vets.
Praedor Atrebates
Part of the plan to kill Social Security. FDR knew well this issue and purposefully made it a universal entitlement so that it would never be viewed as “welfare”.
Logically, it makes sense that the rich should not receive a basic pension from the government. Afterall, they’re rich and can handle MORE than the costs of their own aging. The problem is that the super-greedy sociopathic rich people would grind their teeth at having any of “their money” being used to pay for “lazy leech old people unable to care for themselves”. This holds true for any people, even the not-quite-rich who would fall near some cut-off income level for losing the benefit.
Everyone gets their slice because it is NOT welfare. It is NOT “my money used to prop up people that should just have the decency to DIE!”
While I would love to see McCain destitute and starving at the side of the road in justice for his GOP-ish-ness, I still have to support his receiving of Social Security (in spite of his being a leech off his wife’s free lunch which SHE didn’t earn at all). One benefit of it is that it is a monthly reminder to the nasty bastard that HE IS GETTING REALLY REALLY OLD!! Amazingly, failingly, painfully, fossilworthy old!
Punchy
That’s a lot of fucking scratch for a guy who couldn’t seem to master the basics of Bernoulli and Newton, yaw and pitch, and apparently, lock-picking.
Blue Raven
All hail the military system. My friend who developed PTSD and a couple of other issues thanks to her military service had to fight for 11 years to get her disability claim resolved in her favor. Daddy’s an admiral, come back from the Hanoi Hilton after talking football with the Cong for a few years, and cha-ching.
gypsy howell
My point about his government-funded lifestyle and Cindy’s wealth isn’t that SocSec should be a means-tested program (it shouldn’t be, for the reasons stated above by Praedor) but merely that:
A) If he thinks it’s so fucking disgraceful that current workers are further lining his pockets (which is how he seems to characterize social security benefits) he has the option, especially considering his income and wealth, to NOT ENROLL in the system.
and more importantly
B) His real point is to convince younger workers that the system is inherently UNFAIR to them (which it would be, only if the republicans get their way in eliminating social security as it exists today, so those future retirees end up getting bupkis). Convincing GenX-ers and GenY-ers that they’re getting ripped off by the baby boomers is step one by the Republicans for lubing the path to Social Security extinction. McCain is fully on board with this, all the while that he collects its benefits today.
Like I said, typically republican douchebaggery.
Erieg
The man was a POW. Not on holiday swapping sports stories.
Damn that quote was asinine.
Calouste
McCain didn’t vote against the new GI Bill. McCain doesn’t vote against any bills. He doesn’t vote for any bills either. He’s been AWOL from Senate votes for the last 3 1/2 months.
KRK
There’s so much wrong with current federal farm policy that it’s really annoying when people continue to rail against the acreage set-aside programs that were repealed in the mid-1990s. Current farm subsidy programs aren’t supply management programs that pay farmers for leaving land idle; nonetheless they’re still plenty messed up. You’ve really got to let go of “farmers get paid for not farming” and get a new complaint that actually relates to the programs in place now.
Notorious P.A.T.
I don’t know, I think that if he hates the program so much, he should turn it down.
That’d be like me saying “I hate the Republican party” then donating money to it.
Phoenix Woman
That’s because most of the people reporting on Social Security can’t be arsed to learn how the system works.
just me
Daddy’s an admiral, come back from the Hanoi Hilton after talking football with the Cong for a few years, and cha-ching.
The man had his arms broken, and he can’t lift them over his head. He also had his teeth broken and suffered all sorts of beatings and deprivation.
I think it is over the top to infer that he got his disability soley because of who his father was-I think he earned his disability rating. Now there are certainly others who have had to fight, and psychological disabilities are tough anyway-a friend of ours was a Vietnam vet who injured his knees and suffers from PTSD and he has a 100% rating-his daddy wasn’t an admiral.
What was in McCain’s favor with his rating was he had obvious physical disabilities that were documented. Any disability that is hard to see or diagnose or is psychological in nature is tougher. That is an argument that the system needs changing, not that McCain’s disability wasn’t earned or deserved.
Shalimar
I don’t understand how Social Security works. John McCain was in the military and then became a Congressman and Senator. Would he have been paying into the system in any of those jobs?
Bruce Moomaw
Er, John. The trouble, of course, is that McCain is not getting back what he “paid into the system”. He’s getting back what OTHER people are currently paying into the system — specifically, present-day workers who are making a hell of a lot less money than he is. Which is why one of the major reforms recommended by large numbers of both liberals and conservatives to fix SocSec is to cut its payouts to the already well-off elderly — a policy that John McCain seems unwilling to apply to himself despite his yelling about the system’s “disgrace” and his own wife’s nine-digit fortune.
So, yes, this does make him a lot more of a hypocrite than you yourself are. You may “rail against the government”, but I don’t recall you recommending that others should have less voting rights and access to public roads than you do. I really don’t know what you were thinking when you wrote this item: McCain’s two-facery on this subject IS worthy of note.
John Cole
So you want to call him a hypocrite because of reforms that “should” take place, not because he is following the current system as it is currently laid out.
I think I am on terra firma here, and I have had a shit ton of tequila.
Bruce Moomaw
No, I’m saying he’s a hypocrite because he’s taking (by government force) the money of people who are making a lot less than he is — which he’s perfectly free not to do, just as JFK was free not to take his Presidential salary and in fact DIDN’T take it — at the same time that he’s caterwauling that the current system is stealing from those same less well-off people and is therefore “disgracefully” immoral (while he’s been carefully concealing the fact that he’s one of the thieves).
So, sorry: tequila or no tequila, you’re out to sea on this one. (I will say that — given the number of times recently that I’ve found myself on your Right — it’s kind of nice to get back to the good old days when I can attack you from the Left again.)
piltdown
Are you supposed to retire to collect Social Security?
piltdown
I meant “Aren’t you supposed to….”
Sorry.
grandpajohn
I’m with you on this, everyday republican hypocrisy for these thieves and looters
HRA
No you don’t have to retire to collect social security. If you don’t put in your claim for it at age 65, you lose the money from the eligible age till you do put in a claim.
McCain’s comment about the poor young contributing to the fund made my mouth drop in awe when thinking how I made pittance at age 14 (with working papers) and never thought it was wrong to have money taken out for SS. It was and still is the law.
Yes, he is being hypocritical by collecting SS and whining about the burden on others. I am reminded of a scene many years ago when an exceptionally well off relative of mine did a jig in my presence upon receiving medicare. Sure there is the argument of being entitled as I see it being stated here. That is a problem we have as a nation. Too many are dependent on getting the dole rather than working for their upkeep.