by Rod D. Martin
May 7, 2005

We got this reader response today regarding the Social Security polling cited in two of my recent columns:

Greetings,
I read thru Rod Martin article and I found it full of inaaccuracies such as the Poll percentages supporting the Bush administration Social Security Privitization.

The real polls show that over 60% of the American citizens are AGAINST Bush’s Privitization and that percentage is increasing.

Either provide accurate credible information or at least stop lying!!!

My response:

Sorry to burst your bubble, but you are sorely mistaken, and we have the proof. Both polls were done by Opinion Dynamics, both were reported on at length by Fox News (both TV and website), and we have links to the stories reporting them at www.TheVanguard.org. [UPDATE: While no longer available there, you can find most if not all of them by searching RodMartin.org for the terms Social Security and polling.]

The left has demagogued this issue to death, using bogus polls where the questions are asked in leading fashion and calculated to deliver a bogus result; or in the alternative, pretending that opposition to aspects of the President’s plan (his relatively small percentage devoted to private accounts, for instance, or his new graduated benefit idea) constitutes opposition to the idea of private accounts. You’ve obviously have been taken in by that snow job. But in point of fact, it’s not even just the two polls we’ve most recently reported: we have extensive polling data back five years (!) confirming our same core point, with support for the idea of private accounts averaging no less than 60% (and often far more) even during the height of the “bubble” and the Enron scandal. We have links to a lot of those polls on our site too, from outfits like Gallup and Zogby that I guess you’ll have to call liars too. Here, for instance, is an article by John Zogby himself — from Jan. 2003 — originally titled “Why Privatization Continues Receiving Big Majorities Despite the Recession” (it’s got a more formal sounding name now, but the content is the same).

http://www.socialsecurity.org/pubs/ssps/ssp-29es.html

In short, you’ve been taken in by the AARP/Democrat (but I repeat myself) assault on the President’s plan. And to be fair, the President’s plan doesn’t poll so well as the idea of private accounts by itself, for the very good reason that the President has inadequately focused on private accounts. That was the point of my article, and for everyone’s sake, I sincerely hope the President gets the message.