By Richard Eskow |  America’s Future

The anti-Social Security propagandists should’ve thought this one through a little more carefully: On the same day that Goldman Sach’s CEO issued his “balanced” demand for Social Security and Medicare cuts, the Wall Street-funded group called “Third Way” published the results of a poll which precisely reflected the wishes of Goldman Sach’s CEO.

Coincidence? We report, you decide.

It certainly doesn’t look good when the poll in question contains misleading questions, is deceptively presented, and includes sentences like “Questions 50 to 55 held for future release.” Any remaining shred of credibility disappears in the face of numerous other polls which directly contradicts Third Way’s claims about these results.

Oh, and we almost forgot: Two of that group’s board members worked for that CEO.

Lord Lloyd Speaks

Wall Street’s latest lordly financial fatwa comes from notorious con artist and bailout king Lloyd Blankfein. Under Blankfein’s leadership Goldman Sachs has fraudulently deceived a wide range of investors, including pension and retirement funds for many of the very same Americans who would face even more financial hardship in their senior years if Blankfein’s orders are followed by our elected leaders.

Blankfein’s comments followed the anti-social contract movement’s inaccurate and misleading script to the letter:

“Social Security wasn’t designed to … support a 30-year retirement after a 25 year career,” said Blankfein. This is a variation on the “we’re living longer” argument that’s been debunked dozens of times. Americans who lived to the age of 65 are only living a little bit longer — and the ones living the longest are the wealthiest among us, not the ones who rely on Social Security.

Blankfein’s prescriptions come straight from the script, too: “The retirement age has to be changed, maybe some of the benefits have to be affected, maybe some of the inflation adjustments have to be revised.”

Well, gosh. By uncanny coincidence, that just happens to be exactly the kind of policy package proposed by Third Way  … and by the billionaire-funded individuals named Simpson and Bowles, who issued a personal proposal after failing to get one out of their Presidential commission … and by the billionaire-funded Rivlin/Domenici group …

And it happens to be exactly the kind of package which Third Way’s outlier poll says Obama voters want to see.

Are we getting the picture yet?

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