Republicans Pick Theil Protégé Blake Masters To Challenge Arizona Senator Mark Kelly

Blake Masters won the GOP Senate primary Tuesday in Arizona, and is set to face off against incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ). 


This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1427135
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He wants to privatize Social Security

In other words, he wants to shovel public money toward Peter Tiel and his friends. That’s hardly a winning message.

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Well. Sigh.

Meanwhile, here in Kansas on an otherwise good night, Kris Kobach (R-Undead) won the GOP nomination for state Attorney General, despite his party’s publicly telling him, again, that they didn’t want him to run; they’re afraid he will lose in November. Which, given how the vote on the abortion amendment turned out, may now be even truer than before.

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Especially in a state with a large retiree population.

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This will be a true test at how effective the 40+ GOP campaign to dumb down Americans has worked. Having lived in Tucson AZ for several years, I am not terribly optimistic that the Democrats will be able to overcome those rubes. I left in 2006 and it was bad then, and by all appearances it has gotten much worse.

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Someone needs to inform Masters that, before we can accept that, every penny that everyone still alive and their survivors has paid in over the last 70 years must be returned to the payer with interest from the SS fund. And before he says that, well, it’s bankrupt, we counter with no, it’s not. He and his idiot colleagues have been pilfering from the fund for decades. First order of business is to put every single pilfered dime back into the fund; then, pay out.

Congress can do whatever the hell it wants with SS as soon as they make good on every dime that’s been paid in and reimbursed with interest.

I’m tired of the program we’ve been paying into since FDR continually being called an entitlement and a drain on the budget. Companies have done away with pensions and 401Ks are subject to the whims of the stock markets, which Thiel and his ilk control.

No. If they want to disband SS, then they need to pay out millions and millions of dollars to those of us that have contributed over the decades, AFTER Congress returns every single dime with interest that they’ve pilfered over the decades.

Thiel has the money. Let him take this on. But SS goes nowhere until every last payer has been reimbursed with interest.

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Isn’t this the guy who throttled some Covid-masked protester at a campaign event that only became closed when they didn’t like the protester’s mask and T-shirt?

The write up said that Nasters put his hands around the protester’s neck but the video didn’t seem conclusive to me.

But if it happened, can we put it off on Nasters’ Cross Fit training?

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Has any Dem org in KS totaled up how much state money Kobach has wasted in his years working on the state’s dime? I just can’t figure out why they keep thinking he’s good for the state?

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When may we replace Masters and his ilk?

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Thanks Arizona Republicans, for giving us a stark and easy choice between a 35 year old election denier, and Mark Kelly, astronaut. This seat stays blue.

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There’s a reason Peter Theil doesn’t like democracy. His ideas are unpopular.
I think Mark Kelly will bang this SS-privatization drum right up until E-day.

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But the retirees will only hear the anti-immigration message and that will get their vote.

Focus on our strengths. Especially if they are needed by constituents

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Sorry, but it’s unacceptable, full stop. You’re making good faith arguments to the biggest grifters in the world. Their goal isn’t to actually make retirement savings better for all. It’s to pilfer the system.

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Does this fascist freak have a realistic chance of beating Senator Kelly? Anyone have an idea?

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Social Security is an entitlement—because we are entitled to its benefits when we retire.
It is not part of the federal budget.

The money you pay into it is an insurance premium—FICA stand for Federal Insurance Contributory Act—and is not for your retirement.

Social Security is a pay-as-you-go system. The premiums you pay are used to pay benefits to those already retired. When you retire, those people who are working and paying premiums will be funding your benefits.
Congress has not “pilfered” one thin dime from Social Security.
By law, premiums paid are invested in T-Bills, and the money used to buy the T-Bills goes into the general fund. As the T-Bills mature, the funds are used to pay benefits.

Social Security has always operated this way.

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They don’t care if he’s good for the state.
They care that he wants to hurt the people they hate.

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Because retirees are a monolithic bloc?

I won’t say that Fox is grasping for straws.

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Because that worked out so well in Chile…

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