Poll: GOP Voters Don’t Consider Social Security A Ponzi Scheme

The 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 8^th through the 11^th among 500 usual Republican primary voters.

Republicans Unveil New Contract

A small group of Republicans on Thursday released their “Pledge To America,” a 21-page document that outlines what the party will do if it wins back Congress this fall.

The manifesto proposes a bevy of government reforms, from slashing spending to repealing President Obama’s healthcare law. The pledge is low on specifics, but features ideas submitted by members of the public through the GOP’s “America Speaking Out” website.

“Our pledge to America is that the Republicans stand ready to get it done and beginning today,” said House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio).

“The land of opportunity has become the land of shrinking prosperity,” said Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), a key architect of the document. “Americans across this country are outraged, and so are we.”

Boehner and McCarthy were among a dozen House GOP’ers who made the trek to Tart Lumber in Sterling, Va. to unveil the pledge. Republicans chose Sterling, a Washington, D.C. suburb located roughly 45 minutes outside the city, as a more modest alternative to the ceremony held in 1994 on the Capitol steps in which over 100 Republicans announced their “Contract With America.”

Eliminating 'Defensive Medicine' Will Save Billions, Says Gingrich

By Benny Martinez - University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

Nearly one quarter of all health care costs are derived from the practice of ‘defensive medicine,’ according to a recent Gallup poll.

In a press briefing Monday, a panel of experts talked with reporters about the impact of such practices on the nation’s economy.

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) defined the practice as “doctors who are doing something that is not driven by medical necessity but is driven by a culture of fear because of the pervasiveness of trial lawyer...you have ads [on TV] that say, let’s find somebody that has money so that we can go sue.”

Gingrich said that the issue of reducing defensive medicine is a platform that must be considered during President Barack Obama’s health care summit this Thursday. According to the Gallup poll, $625 billion is spent annually on defensive medicine.

“If we could simply adopt modest reforms to begin to make the culture of defensive behavior go away, we save 20 percent,” Gingrich said. “That’s 105 billion a year, [and], over the ten years the President is trying to save money for health insurance reform, is over a trillion dollars.”

Gingrich: We Are At The Edge Of A Catastrophe

The United States needs a dramatic increase in defense spending as well as a massive overhaul of its national security decision-making process in order to avoid a catastrophe, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said Monday.

“[We need] a national security budget and a homeland security budget driven by meeting the capabilities of our opponents, not by meeting their intentions. We are today running very big risks in the name of saving a few billion dollars that may end up killing several million Americans. The time to fix that is before the disaster happens,” said Gingrich.

He described several threats to national security such as nuclear, biological, and cyber attacks, as well as electromagnetic pulse attacks that could wipe out most of the country’s electrical structure. Gingrich stated that the U.S., like Japan, should start militarizing outer space in order to protect the massive amounts of communication technology orbiting the Earth.

Gingrich also criticized the federal government's inability to act decisively and quickly, explaining that bureaucracy hinders the country's ability to move at the speed of the modern world or sustain its defense system.

“We have been the most fortunate generation in history...We are still today the richest, freest, and safest people in the history of the world. That will only remain true if we have the courage, the discipline, and the foresight to insist on the kind of changes we need in order to maintain safety as the highest single value of the American people, a base on which you can then build prosperity and freedom,” said Gingrich.

Baby Boomers Hit Retirement Age

By Courtney Costello- Talk Radio News Service

Volunteers of America hosted a discussion today on the baby boomer generation’s affect on the future of health care and Social Security.

America is at a turning point, where the oldest baby boomers will be 65 in the next two years. By 2030 there will be an estimated 71 million seniors in comparison to the current 37 million seniors, said Donna Brazile, Democratic political strategist and moderator at the discussion.

Baby Boomers were born between the years 1946 to 1964 and it is estimated that there were 77 million babies born within these years.
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Said Brazile, “We have to re-think the way that we deliver care for our nation’s older Americans in the future.”

Tom Daschle, former Senate Majority Leader, said, “Clearly cost is an issue that we have to address...we also need to bring everyone under the system resulting in coverage for all... many Americans are underinsured [and] 48% of the people who have insurance don’t have the care they need today.”

Today, one of the biggest health concerns for seniors in this country is Alzheimer’s, and with more research, more positive outcomes can be expected.

“If you could imagine a world without Alzheimer's by 2030, you have changed for probably half the baby boomers the trajectory of their life, and you have changed for their children a great deal of the trajectory of their lives,” said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

On the issue of the future of Social Security, author and anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson said, “trust in the system is urgent to reassure people that social security will be there.”

“The earlier we find a way to migrate towards some kind of compound [social security] interest model, where you know what you have invested, and you get back the compound interest effect for 50-55 years of work...remember people will work longer in the next generation, not shorter.” said Gingrich.

85 % of Americans expect long term care to be a part of health care reform... It requires Presidential leadership, said the panel.