Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell last Thursday, boasting about having worked with George W. Bush in a failed effort to create private Social Security accounts—and complaining that Democrats refused to help:
“After Bush was re-elected in 2004 he wanted us to try to fix Social Security,” said McConnell. “I spent a year trying to get any Democrat in the Senate — even those most reasonable Democrat of all, Joe Lieberman – to help us.”
When asked if he would try the same thing as Senate Majority Leader, McConnell refused to answer, but he was nonetheless proud of his effort. But now that the election is one week closer and he's faced with attacks about his support for Social Security privatization from his opponent Alison Lundergan Grimes and her Democratic allies, McConnell is
denying the whole thing:
"That's just one of the many fictions the Grimes campaign has been spinning. Obviously, preserving and protecting Social Security is the most important thing any of us can do," said McConnell.
In just one week, McConnell has gone from bragging about his past efforts to privatize Social Security to pretending it never happened and claiming that his No. 1 priority is preserving and protecting Social Security.
So, which Mitch McConnell should we believe? The one who tried to privatize Social Security and bragged about it, or the Mitch McConnell who says it's a lie to accuse him of supporting privatization? Well, not even McConnell himself will answer that question because, in his words, if Republicans do win the majority: "I'm not announcing what the agenda would be in advance."
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Moral of the story: The only way Kentucky voters can be sure Mitch McConnell won't try to privatize Social Security is if they send him into an early retirement. Fortunately, on Tuesday they can do exactly that.