We Don't Call It "Privatization" Anymore

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Republicans are "crying foul" when Democrats use the term "privatization" to describe their plans for Social Security, but as Joshua Micah Marshall notes, "The simple truth is that 'privatization' has always been the word Republicans themselves used to describe their policy. That is, it was until they rather belatedly realized that their policy was killing them with voters. ... Now the term (and the policy, for that matter) is a political loser. So Republican operatives are cooking up lies to get themselves off the hook. Everyone has to change the name. And if they don't, they're biased against conservatives." (The Bush plan on Social Security emerged directly from the conservative Cato Institute. "And what's the name of the Cato project to promote personal accounts?" asks Paul Krugman. "Why, the Project on Social Security Privatization, of course.")