Liberal Talk Radio

Josh Marshall has a strategy vis-a-vis Social Security. Responding to the idea that Republicans are interested in making IRAs easier, he writes:

But, for my part, all of the Democrats’ mental energy should be going into strengthening retirement security for middle-income Americans. Period. That’s really not an issue to hash out with Republicans because most of the things the president’s party wants to do either damages retirement security or is irrelevant to it.

Huh? Do middle-income Americans not have IRAs or 401(k)s? Josh would seem to have a bit of a blind spot here. Ordinarily I applaud his neoliberal instincts. But his fixation with Social Security lately may have somehow transported him back to 1955, when pensions were in their heyday and only East Cost aristocrats with names like “Bush” invested in the stock market. But the situation is far different today. Many Americans, middle- and upper-income alike, have retirement savings in the Stock market, especially entry-level things like IRAs.

This is a Democratic blind spot, IMHO. I agree that some sort of baseline social security is vital. But can you seriously talk about Retirement in America while calling 401(k)s and IRAs “irrelevant” to middle-income Americans??