Paul Ryan and Social Security, It Doesn't Get Any Worse

Paul Ryan on Social Security, 2005: “Social Security right now is a collectivist system... It’s a welfare transfer system... Autopilot will bring more government, more collectivism, more centralized government, if we do not succeed in switching these programs and reforming these programs from what some people call a defined benefit system, to a defined contribution system.”

Paul Ryan, 2012, talking about his above comment: Asked about those words Saturday, Ryan said that did not represent his thinking about the retirement program.  "I don't think of it like that," he said, saying his concern about Social Security is that younger workers today will get a "negative" rate of return for their retirement on the money they pay into payroll taxes.

So what happened in those 7 years?  What has changed his mind so drastically?  The most obvious is he is now on a Presidential Ticket and calling the most popular social program in America a socialized, collectivist welfare system looks really, really bad.

What do we get from this?  Seriously, what can we assume from Ryan's two completely different comments about Social Security?  One, we could do what Republicans do and say that Ryan has a secret agenda that he doesn't want people to know, it being he wants to take Social Security away from people.  Or two, we can assume he is trying to have it both ways by calling it one thing in front of one group and an altogether different thing while speaking to a another group.  

Or we could just do this.  Let's look at what Paul Ryan has done or has tried to do while serving in Congress in regards to Social Security. 

2005 was a big year for Ryan and Social Security.  He pushed President Bush for a plan that would defund Social Security by allowing workers to invest their payroll taxes into the market, instead of Social Security.  Bush instead went with a slightly different privatized plan, which Ryan also supported, and the public hated it.

Additionally in 2005, he sponsored a bill that would have allowed workers to funnel an average of 6.4 percent of their 12.4 percent payroll-tax contribution to a private account.  The Social Security Administration concluded Ryan's plan would require $225 billion annually in new revenue to provide for current benefits.  In other words, Ryan's plan defunded Social Security.

In 2007 he proposed yet another a bill that would invest 50% of FICA into personal market accounts.

In 2010, he again promoted the idea of defunding Social Security by investing 1/3 of payroll taxes into the market.  Even way back In 2000, he voted yes on reducing payroll taxes that fund Social Security, or better said he voted to defund Social Security. 

His entire congressional career he has pushed to do away with Social Security.  In fact, that's the only record he has on Social Security.  And now we're supposed to believe he he doesn't feel that way anymore?