Chandler Scares, Misinforms on Social Security; Media Sleeps

It has been ten days since Ben Chandler's attack on President Bush went out in the form of a press release claiming ridiculously that Bush plans to cut benefits to Social Security recipients by "nearly 50%" and that private account owners would be forced to "pay back at least 50% of what they earn in the account back in taxes." These claims are so outrageous and off base as to be written off as the wild rantings of a delusional partisan hack. And those two examples are just the tip of the iceberg. His scare tactics are nothing short of embarrassing. Chandler claims, literally, that some lucky few people will gain wealth from the Bush plan but that most people "will lose their retirement savings to fluctuations" in the same accounts! The same kind of error-riddled, even laughable, babble from a Republican elected to any office would elicit crushing scrutiny from a skeptical media. What response has Congressman Chandler's diatribe elicited so far? Silence. And repeated calls to Chandler's office for some kind of explanation for his outburst have gone unanswered as well.