Mitt Romney throws America's youth under the bus

(By Philip Klein, The Washington Examiner) - Mitt Romney doubled down on his attack against Texas Gov. Rick Perry [yesterday] afternoon, warning in an interview with Sean Hannity that his critique of Social Security amounted to "terrible politics" that would cost Republicans the election.

Romney's decision to pile on suggests that he's willing to play the "granny card" against Perry if it will help him get elected, a tactic more becoming of the likes of DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz than a potential Republican nominee.

“The issue is not so much how we finance Social Security, it’s that Gov. Perry in his book 'Fed Up,' says that Social Security has been forced on us, and by no measure is Social Security anything but a failure," Romney said. "That is being against not just how you finance Social Security, but being against Social Security. One, in my view, that is wrong. I am for Social Security. I want to save Social Security, it’s an essential safety net for the American people. And number two, it’s terrible politics. If we nominate someone who the Democrats can correctly characterize as being opposed to Social Security, we will be obliterated as a party.”

Romney is wrong -- Social Security is forced upon us, and it is a failure. It is a scam foisted upon younger Americans who must fork over payroll taxes to fund current retirees and other government services with no prospect of actually recouping what they put into the system.

Later in the interview, Romney said he did support reforms to Social Security, such as means testing, raising the retirement age and voluntary individual accounts, but given his willingness to engage in scare tactics to win over the AARP crowd, there's no realistic reason to believe that a President Romney would actually be willing to tackle entitlements.