Madrick, Dean Win Big Defending Social Security and Medicare

Monday, 10/10/2011 - 1:57 pm by Tim Price

We’ve all heard it before, repeated ad nauseam by conservative critics of Social Security and Medicare: “Grandma’s benefits imperil junior’s future.” That’s the claim Roosevelt Institute Senior Fellow Jeff Madrick and former DNC chairman Howard Dean sought to debunk at last week’s Intelligence Squared debate. Arguing for the motion were Fox News commentator Margaret Hoover and media mogul Mort Zuckerman. So how did the progressives fair? Before the debate, the audience was split 33/32 in favor of the motion, with 35 percent undecided. By the time Madrick and Dean were finished, they’d swayed 56 percent of the crowd to their side.