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Wednesday, January 19, 2005

How dishonest? Oh, THAT dishonest

Posted by: Hammer / 3:28 PM

UPDATE 1/20/05
Even Newt Gingrich, the Republican former speaker of the House of Representatives and a supporter of private accounts, says, "The combination of higher birth rates and more immigration makes the United States the healthiest of developed nations. This is not a crisis."
From Bloomberg.
Captain's Quarters
I've wanted to write on this for some time, but Jon Henke at the must-read QandO beat me to it. The Democrats have accused the Bush Administration of crisis-mongering on Social Security, which they claim remains strong and solvent. However, that's a far cry -- almost literally -- from the rhetoric used by the last Democratic administration in Washington:

* Gene Sperling - Clinton Economic Advisor: "this is a chance for both parties to actually show ... that we are saving more to meet the Social Security crisis in the future. If we don't do this, then we are just putting those burdens on a future generation." ...

* Senator Kohl - Democrat: Wisconsin [March 22, 2000]: "Comprehensive Social Security Reform is still necessary. Today's changes will do nothing to hold off the coming crisis that will begin when we start drawing down the Social Security Trust fund in 2014. Congress needs to deal with this soon, otherwise we are shirking our duty to the American people."

* WHITE HOUSE RELEASE [October 30, 1998] -- "It is normally impossible for any democracy to tackle long-term problems while the crisis is still only on the horizon. Putting the surplus off-limits until we address saving Social Security provides a strong impetus for all of us to do something to solve a fiscal challenge early so we can prevent a crisis later."

For good measure, Jon provides a number of quotes from Bill himself using the term "crisis" to describe the program's financial condition. How, then, can they complain when Bush says this:

It looks like this argument stems from a Washington Times editorial which takes a Clinton quote out of context. Media Matters notes:
At the time [of the Clinton quote], the trustees projected that the program would be unable to pay promised benefits in full beginning in 2029. But the trustees' most recent projections extend that date to 2042, and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects that the trust fund will remain solvent until 2052.
Two points. One, the White House said in 1998 that a crisis was "only on the horizon". That's quite different from the current White House language. Two, in 1998, the "crisis" was 31 years in the future. Today, it's 37 to 47 years in the future.

Finally: we ought to make a minor adjustment to social security funding. It's a lot easier to do that now than it will be in 47 years. We should honor the full commitment to -- well, to the Hammer's golden years. Fun, though, that Bush can be dishonest about a crisis now and the right can simultaneously be dishonest about a crisis then.

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