I knew that Republicans want to phase out Social Security in favor of personal investment accounts. And I knew that they think the answer to the health care crisis is to give tax breaks for individual medical accounts — in other words, to encourage each of us to save up our pennies in case we ever need to pay for major surgery. (So much more efficient than the old fashioned notion that we should collectively share the risk through some form of “insurance” — and it helps to cull the weak and the sick out of the herd at the same time!)
But even I was surprised by this bit from Elaine Chao’s speech (my transcript):
For workers experiencing unemployment, the President has proposed Personal Re-employment Accounts which workers can use to get the training and support they need.
So in addition to saving for your retirement and saving for the possibility of catastrophic medical care, Republicans would also like you to set aside some money for your own retraining in the event that their lousy economic policies lead to the loss of your job.
Pretty much sums up compassionate conservativism, doesn’t it?