Leave No President Behind
It's clear why George W. Bush wanted to focus on education for our children. He can't spell and he can't do math.
Exhibit 1, a photo from the President's economic "summit" this week.
Perhaps, to be politically correct, I shouldn't say he can't spell, just that he is "spelling challanged (sic)." Their video billboard software must not have a spell-check function.
(By the way, the woman on the panel is Sandy Jacques, the "single mom from Iowa" brought for her grass-roots, plain-folks contribution to the summit, who just happens to have worked for privatization lobbies for years. But that's another story.)
Exhibit 2, from the quite amusing Washington Post coverage of the same event:
Am I missing something, Brooking Institution economist Henry J. Aaron?
But seriously, folks. As fun as it is to mock the President's gaffes and stupidity, the problem isn't that he's a bumbling fool. He's more dangerous than that. He's a zealot and a liar, and he's working to destroy the country and the world. Currently, he's hard at work spreading the "Social Security crisis" lie, so that we'll all go along with changes that will destroy the system, thinking we're "saving" it. Don't buy into it, and talk about it with others, so that they don't get conned.
Kevin Drum at the Washington Monthly has been writing many pieces about this issue, worth reading for background. And the estimable Krugman brings us some notes from other countries in this morning's column. Now is the time to be informed, and stop this train before it gets rolling.
Exhibit 1, a photo from the President's economic "summit" this week.
Perhaps, to be politically correct, I shouldn't say he can't spell, just that he is "spelling challanged (sic)." Their video billboard software must not have a spell-check function.
(By the way, the woman on the panel is Sandy Jacques, the "single mom from Iowa" brought for her grass-roots, plain-folks contribution to the summit, who just happens to have worked for privatization lobbies for years. But that's another story.)
Exhibit 2, from the quite amusing Washington Post coverage of the same event:
Bush warned the conference yesterday that in 2018, the Social Security system will begin paying out more in benefits than it receives in Social Security taxes. By 2042, the system will be able to pay beneficiaries no more than 75 percent of their promised benefits.Gee, productivity falling to 1.6 percent and growth to 1.8 percent? That sounds dire.
"Once that line in the red has been crossed, the shortfalls will grow larger with each passing year," he continued.
But those projections are based on a dire view of the nation's economic future, one in which the growth in economic productivity crashes from the 3.4 percent rate of last year to 1.6 percent from 2012 on. Economic growth is anticipated to be cut nearly in half from historic trends, to 1.8 percent between 2015 and 2080.
"Under the trustees' projections, growth is going to slow to half the pace we've been growing for 150 years," [JP Morgan Chase's senior US economist James] Glassman said in an interview. "That might be, but I don't know why I should believe that."OK, so he's just one economist, albeit for one of the world's largest financial companies. What does he know? But, if the economy is in the tank that bad, wouldn't that also affect the stock market?
Other economists believe an economic slowdown is inevitable, as the number of retirees begins to surpass the number of workers. But in that case, stock market gains may also slow considerably from the market's historical 7.8 percent annual rate of return. Also, any proposal to divert some Social Security taxes into private investment accounts would rely on stock market gains to make up for cuts in defined benefits.Gee, that makes it seem like the numbers don't fit together. If you agree the economy slows enormously, so that Social Security needs fixing, then stocks, and private accounts holding them, won't fix it. And if the economy does well enough to provide the returns in stocks that make private accounts make sense, then the Social Security system is OK, and there is no crisis. So if I believe the President's talk about how making his tax cuts permanent will lead to long-term growth, then I can just forget about changing Social Security. At best, we only need one of these policies, right?
The Center for Economic and Policy Research, which ardently opposes Bush's Social Security proposals, has concluded that stock gains under the trustees' economic projections would be 4.2 percent, a yield low enough to throw all of the White House's projected benefit gains into doubt.
Am I missing something, Brooking Institution economist Henry J. Aaron?
"The administration is trying to put the best face it can on each of these policies," Aaron said. "The inconsistencies are unavoidable."Oh.
But seriously, folks. As fun as it is to mock the President's gaffes and stupidity, the problem isn't that he's a bumbling fool. He's more dangerous than that. He's a zealot and a liar, and he's working to destroy the country and the world. Currently, he's hard at work spreading the "Social Security crisis" lie, so that we'll all go along with changes that will destroy the system, thinking we're "saving" it. Don't buy into it, and talk about it with others, so that they don't get conned.
Kevin Drum at the Washington Monthly has been writing many pieces about this issue, worth reading for background. And the estimable Krugman brings us some notes from other countries in this morning's column. Now is the time to be informed, and stop this train before it gets rolling.
posted by Paul at 10:04 AM |
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