Plus ça change

Sidney Blumenthal, writing in the March 3 Salon, quotes this bit of boilerplate GOPper rhetoric about Social Security:

"Society has an obligation to promote the security of the people, by affording some measure of protection against involuntary unemployment and dependency in old age. The [present] policies, while purporting to provide social security, have, in fact, endangered it ... the fund [holds] nothing but the government's promise to pay ... [and is] unworkable."

That is, the trust fund "doesn't exist," it's just a bunch of meaningless IOUs, blah blah blah. Yeah, yeah, we've heard it all before.

In fact, way before: The quote is from the GOP platform for the presidential election of 1936.

Geez, Shrub even has to steal his bullshit.

Thanks to Josh Marshall for the tip.