Program endangered

I remember when Ronald Reagan was elected. A friend of mine wore a black armband and said bad things were going to happen. It seems he was right. Reagan let the federal budget get so out of control. He became the first U.S. president to budget for over a trillion dollars. Reagan demonstrated that Republicans could take away chunks of Social Security and be lauded as heroes. It appears Arkansas has not learned from history.

I think the 2014 Republican sweep of Arkansas and the Congress was not the result of a TV show contest or a political game. The political cycle was a life-and-death struggle between the Great Society and robber barons. No sports metaphor suffices. Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society has been strapped to a chair with wheels and left to rot by the fireplace. Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal is being replaced by (insert next Republican president’s name)’s raw deal.

Here is how it will happen. The next Republican president will borrow heavily from the Social Security fund, declare the social program bankrupt, and win support from states like Arkansas to privatize Social Security, whereby creating a system that steals life from the poor and gives life to the rich. I believe George W. Bush almost succeeded in doing this.

Billionaires now rule Arkansas. I believe Social Security cannot survive. GENE MASON

Jacksonville