The second group, Buchanan coached, consisted of high earners. The plan here would be to suggest that they be taxed at higher rates than others to get their benefits, thus sullying the image of Social Security as an insurance program in the minds of the wealthy by making it look more like now-unpopular means-tested income transfer programs popularly understood as “welfare.” Progressives would likely fall for a proposal to make the wealthiest pay more, not realizing the damage that could do to Social Security’s support among group two. And if the message was repeated enough, such that the
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