Perry challenges Social Security's viability for the young

San Antonio Express-News:

Riding high in the polls, Gov. Rick Perry rode into the Hawkeye State on Saturday with tough talk on President Barack Obama and a declaration that Social Security isn't only a Ponzi scheme but a “monstrous lie” for younger people.

“If you're for the status quo in America, I'm not your guy,” Perry told an overflow crowd eager to see the presidential candidate at The Vine Coffeehouse.

Asked by a woman in the crowd about Social Security being viewed as an entitlement program, Perry reiterated the suggestion in his anti-Washington book “Fed Up!” that the program amounts to a Ponzi scheme.

“It is a Ponzi scheme for these young people. The idea that they're working and paying into Social Security today (and) the current program is going to be there for them is a lie,” Perry said. “It is a monstrous lie on this generation, and we can't do that to them.”

Later, in Des Moines, when a reporter asked about the suggestion his campaign was backing off some positions in the staunch states-rights book, Perry said: “I haven't backed off anything in my book. So read the book again and get it right.”

He told the Ottumwa crowd that for people who are drawing Social Security or, “like me,” are near eligibility, he wasn't proposing a change in the program. But he said there should be a national conversation about potential changes for others, including raising the age of eligibility and establishing a threshold based on a person's means.

“Does Warren Buffett need to get Social Security? Maybe not,” he said.

Presenting himself as the candidate who can put Americans back to work, Perry listed jobs lost in Iowa “since President Obama took over as president” and said one in eight Iowans is on food stamps.

“To be fair, President Obama inherited a bad economy, but he sure made it worse,” Perry said.
On foreign policy, Perry was asked about Israel and cited a statement by Obama that Israel's borders with a Palestinian state should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps — a position Perry called “throwing Israel under the bus.”

“I'm going to stand with Israel,” he said.

...

I am sure the Democrats will try to make something of this stand on Social Security because it is a challenge to their viability as a party. He has taken an approach that puts them on the defensive on the issue. That is something few Republicans have been willing to do. If he survives it politically it will change everything. Perry has a way of putting his opponents on the defensive and he is being bold on this issue.

He is also putting Obama on the defensive about his Middle East policy in a state where support for Israel among Christian conservatives is strong.