Not Quite Liveblogging the Congressional District 1 Debate

While doing some mindless paper-cutting tasks, I'm watching WPRI's online video of last night's Congressional district 1 debate between Republican John Loughlin and Democrat David Cicilline, and the first thing to catch my ear came right at the beginning, during discussion of Social Security.

Cicilline ran through his accusation that Loughlin wants to privatize the system and thinks it's a Ponzi scheme (no doubt, mentally thanking Providence Journal reporter Cynthia Needham for her free rhetorical research). Then, while explaining why allowing younger workers to invest a portion of their payroll taxes in private retirement funds, he said:

We rely on current workers to pay into the system to pay people collecting Social Security.

Sounds like a Ponzi scheme to me.

ADDENDUM 1:

Talking about the Bush tax cuts, blaming Republicans for not allowing Democrats to put forward a proposal to keep the tax cuts for the middle class, Cicilline repeated again and again that it's "not the time to give another tax break to the millionaires and billionaires." Two things:

• The solution that he suggests — expanding the group that would maintain the tax cuts so as to exclude only "millionaires and billionaires" — has never been on Congress's table. Heck, I don't think any proposal was ever risked on the floor.
• It's flatly dishonest to call an extension "another tax break" —albeit entirely in keeping with the Democrats' mindset. Directly put, what Cicilline believes is that it represents an additional tax break not to increase taxes.