The Arkansas Republican Party is trumpeting the news that the respected Politifact news service has found only “barely true” Sen. Blanche Lincoln‘s claim that opponent John Boozman wants to privatize Social Security.

Barely true is not false. It is true.

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A reading of the Politifact research on the ad shows quite clearly the many ways in which John Boozman has indicated he believes Social Security is unsustainable and needs to be changed by opening the door to to privatization measures. Allowing such individual investment decisions would be the doom of the system as we know it and those who favor the approach know it full well. Imagine if G.W. Bush had succeeded in the Republican plan to privatize the system before the market collapse. Imagine.

Said Republican spokeswoman Alice Stewart:

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He supports a plan to allow young workers to divert a portion of their payroll taxes into personal investment accounts, these would be safe investments,

Pray tell those safe investments. We’d all like to know.

It is also wholly true that Boozman is a co-sponsor of legislation to impose a 30 percent national sales tax. Imagine.

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PS — The Republican shill wants you to believe a 30 percent sales tax would be offset by end of the income tax. Hah. A family of four earning $75,000 pays an effective income tax rate of under 5 percent, or about $3,750 a year. But virtually every dime they make would be spent on 30 percent sales taxable goods. That $20,000 pickup would add $6,000. A house? Who knows? And that’s if 30 percent would be revenue neutral after all the special pleaders were accommodated. It slanders pigs to call this a pig in a poke.

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