Sharron Angle’s New DC Handlers Try, Fail to Recreate Her Position on Social Security, Medicare

She has repeatedly referred to Social Security as an "entitlement” – yesterday was first mention of Planned Parenthood

GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle’s D.C. handlers are at it again, again trying to walk back their candidate’s indefensible position on killing Social Security.

But believing their spin would require you to also believe that Angle doesn't know what entitlement programs are. Come on guys. Give your candidate a little bit of credit.

She knows exactly what entitlement programs are and she has a long history of wanting to kill them, as evidenced in a 1993 letter to Sen. Harry Reid.  In that letter, Angle called on Reid to “STOP FUNDING THE WASTEFUL SOCIAL AND ENTITLEMENT PROGRAMS. MAKE THE DIFFICULT CHOICES THAT WILL KEEP OUR COUNTRY STRONG. THAT'S WHAT YOU WERE ELECTED TO DO!”

In other words, make the “tough choice” to kill a program that puts food on the tables of nearly 400,000 Nevada seniors? Angle spouted the same message during the GOP primary in 2010, proving 17 years hasn’t softened her stance on the issue. But fast forward a few short month – and add a few D.C. handlers to the mix – and we see a kinder, gentler image of Angle emerge.

Angle’s new "professional" handlers are now claiming their candidate didn’t mean Social Security (we swear!) when she talked about killing “wasteful… entitlement programs.” What she really meant (we swear!) was Planned Parenthood, or so those D.C. handler types told Jessica Yellin at CNN yesterday:

Yellin: I did speak to the campaign about this letter… and they do point out that she never mentioned Social Security and they are correct. She doesn’t actually say Social Security. She criticizes social programs. They say she means things like Planned Parenthood funding. We're out of line, they say, for the media to characterize this as a slam on Social Security.

Not so fast, guys.

Anyone who was in Nevada before June 8, when Angle won the GOP primary and the backtracking began, knows that Angle has long talked of killing Social Security and Medicare, often referring to the programs as “entitlements.”

In May, Angle likened Social Security to welfare. “Well, it’s very difficult, Lynn, to justify Social Security. As you know F.D.R. put it in as an insurance policy for those who were needy. My grandfather would not even take his Social Security check because he said he was not up for welfare, he had planned for his retirement, and he wouldn’t take it. But, since then we have gotten into this whole mindset that it’s an entitlement.”

And in April, during an April 2010 interview with TruNews radio, Angle said, “And these programs that you mentioned -- that Obama has going with Reid and Pelosi pushing them forward -- are all entitlement programs built to make government our God. And that’s really what’s happening in this country is a violation of the First Commandment. We have become a country entrenched in idolatry, and that idolatry is the dependency upon our government. We’re supposed to depend upon God for our protection and our provision and for our daily bread, not for our government.”

Even The Review-Journal’s Sherm Frederick knew Angle was talking about Social Security, and disagreed with her characterization on TruNews.

But Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist John L. Smith summed it up in a recent column:

In 1993, Angle was a member of Nevada's far-right Independent American Party and sat on the Nye County School District board. Her rhetoric changed only after she prevailed in the 2010 Republican primary.

Ending Social Security and other entitlement programs?

… That's the Angle I know.

Her recent soft-lens campaign style notwithstanding, I suspect Sharron Angle is the same as she ever was.

“Angle’s new D.C. handlers may think they can pull the wool over the eyes of Nevada voters, but it’s crystal clear what Sharron Angle meant when she said we should stop funding ‘wasteful social and entitlement programs,’” said Phoebe Sweet, communications director with the Nevada State Democratic Party. “In 1993 she meant killing Social Security. She meant it when she said it in April and in May, too. So in August, Angle’s new handlers and flacks can say post-primary Sharron meant something – anything – else. But Nevada voters aren’t buying it. And they’re getting tired of more lies from the new, but unimproved, Sharron Angle.”