Maybe all the attacks on Rick Perry’s Social Security rhetoric are starting to have an effect after all.
In the opening round of Monday night’s CNN/Tea Party Express debate in Florida, Perry offered up a promise to senior citizens: the program will not change for you.
“The people who are on social security today need to understand something,” Perry said. “Slam-dunk guaranteed, that program is going to be there in place for those people.”
He offered the same promise to those near retirement, echoing comments he’s made on the trail recently.
“Those individuals who are moving towards being on Social Security, that program’s going to be there for them when they arrive there,” Perry said.
But Perry offered dramatically softened language on the program from the past — distancing himself as the creator of the “Ponzi Scheme” line he’s become known for.
“Listen, this is a broken system,” he said. “It has been called a Ponzi Scheme by many people long before me. But no one’s had the courage to stand up and say, here is how we’re going to reform it.”
Perry said he favored a “transformed” Social Security “for those in the mid-career ages” and “fixed” for “younger Americans.”
