This Just In

TNR dug up this 1987 quote from George H. W. Bush on privatizing SS:

I think it's a nutty idea to fool around with the Social Security system and run the risk of [hurting] the people who've been saving all their lives.... It may be a new idea, but it's a dumb one.

Of course, the elder Bush once referred to Reagan's supply side ideas as "voodoo economics."
His comment was in response to former Delaware Governor Pete duPont, who was pushing the idea way back when. You can find Pete's latest diatribe on SS titled "Socialism's Last Redoubt" in last month's WSJ Online. In 2000 Pete published a column in the same space titled "Gore Carries the Porn Belt" that suggests that "blue state" may have a different meaning.