Poll: GOP Voters Don’t Consider Social Security A Ponzi Scheme
Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 11:57AMThe majority of Republican voters disagree with Texas Governor Rick Perry’s assertion that Social Security is a “ponzi scheme,” according to new data put out by Public Policy Polling.
A survey released Wednesday found that 53 percent of likely Republican primary voters say that the entitlement program isn’t how Perry described it, whereas only 33 percent say it is. 14 percent replied that they were not sure.
Perry and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who is Perry’s closest rival among GOP candidates, butted heads Monday night over Perry’s rhetoric, with Romney accusing the Texas Governor of scaring senior citizens.
Still, despite apparent disagreement over Perry’s description, the same poll found that Perry still holds a double-digit lead over Romney, via a 31-18 percent margin. Texas Congressman Ron Paul, who made headlines over his response to a question of whether the government should help sick people who can’t afford insurance, received 11 percent of the vote. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich came in fourth, with 10 percent.
In a hypothetical two-way race between Perry and Romney, the former leads 49-37 percent.
Among Tea Party voters, the poll found that a third of them backed Perry. At 33 percent, the Texas Governor has a huge lead on the rest of the field in that department. However, Romney leads Perry 28-26 percent with non-Tea Party Republicans.
The poll was conducted September 8th through the 11th among 500 usual Republican primary voters.
Black Tea Party Members Deny Movement Is Racist
By Sarah Mamula - Talk Radio News Service
On Wednesday, a handful of black conservative and Tea Party activists held a news conference Wednesday to dismiss allegations of racism within the right-wing movement.
“This is not a movement driven by race,” said Selena Owens, a member of the Tea Party Express. “We are not racist…[and] we will not allow those in the media or political left to censor or censure us with false and derogatory statements and smears.”
Alan Keyes, a former Ambassador and Presidential candidate, said that President Barack Obama was elected by a “virulent form of racism” and compared the President’s agenda to a slave owner’s.
“What did it mean to be a slave?” Keyes said. “Your master guaranteed your food, your clothing, your shelter and a job…that’s exactly what the Obama faction and the leftists…want to pretend all Americans should aspire to.”
Another speaker, radio talk show host Herman Cain, said that the false accusations were a liberal strategy to divide the movement and deflect attention from what he dubbed the Democrat’s “failed policies.”
“When they [Democrats] do not succeed…they resort to name calling,” said Cain.
The group harshly attacked Obama and the Democratic party by calling them elitists that had “re-enslaved America.”
President of the Black Conservative Coalition Kevin Jackson accused Obama of referring to blacks as “mongrels,” and blamed the Democratic agenda for why blacks are the leading the nation in unemployment, high school dropout, neighborhood crime and abortion rates.
When directly asked about the incident involving Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) allegedly being called a racial slur by a Tea Party member amid March’s health care reform vote, the speakers emphatically stressed that there was no evidence that anyone from the Tea Party movement directed a racial slur at him.
The group maintained that any evdence suggesting racism could be the result of nonmembers infiltrating the organization in order to “brand” the Tea Party as racist.