When it comes to what has been reported of the Presidents plan regarding social security I get an eery feeling that I have been down this road before.

January 18, 2005
OP-ED COLUMNIST
That Magic Moment
By PAUL KRUGMAN

A charming man courts a woman, telling her that he's a wealthy independent businessman. Just after the wedding, however, she learns that he has been cooking the books, several employees have accused him of sexual harassment and his company is about to file for bankruptcy. She accuses him of deception. "The accountability moment is behind us," he replies.

Last week President Bush declared that the election was the "accountability moment" for the war in Iraq - the voters saw it his way, and that's that. But Mr. Bush didn't level with the voters during the campaign and doesn't deserve anyone's future trust.

I won't belabor the W.M.D. issue, except to point out that the Bush administration, without exactly lying, managed to keep most voters confused. According to a Pew poll, on the eve of the election the great majority of voters, of both parties, believed that the Bush administration had asserted that it found either W.M.D. or an active W.M.D. program in Iraq.

Mr. Bush also systematically misrepresented how the war was going. Remember last September when Ayad Allawi came to Washington? Mr. Allawi, acting as a de facto member of the Bush campaign - a former official close to the campaign suggested phrases and helped him rehearse his speech to Congress - declared that 14 or 15 of Iraq's 18 provinces were "completely safe," and that the interim government had 100,000 trained troops. None of it was true.

Now that the election is over, we learn that the search for W.M.D. has been abandoned. Meanwhile, military officials have admitted that even as Mr. Bush kept asserting that we were making "good progress," the insurgency was growing in numbers and effectiveness, that the Army Reserve is "rapidly degenerating into a 'broken' force," and oh, by the way, we'll need to spend at least another $100 billion to pay for war expenses and replace damaged equipment. But the accountability moment, says Mr. Bush, is behind us.

Maybe we can't hold Mr. Bush directly to account for misleading the public about Iraq. But Mr. Bush still has a domestic agenda, for which the lessons of Iraq are totally relevant.

White House officials themselves concede - or maybe boast - that their plan to sell Social Security privatization is modeled on their selling of the Iraq war. In fact, the parallels are remarkably exact.

Everyone has noticed the use, once again, of crisis-mongering. Three years ago, the supposed threat from Saddam somehow became more important than catching the people who actually attacked America on 9/11. Today, the mild, possibly nonexistent long-run financial problems of Social Security have somehow become more important than dealing with the huge deficit we already have, which has nothing to do with Social Security.

But there's another parallel, which I haven't seen pointed out: the politicization of the agencies and the intimidation of the analysts. Bush loyalists begin frothing at the mouth when anyone points out that the White House pressured intelligence analysts to overstate the threat from Iraq, while neocons in the Pentagon pressured the military to understate the costs and risks of war. But that is what happened, and it's happening again.

Last week Andrew Biggs, the associate commissioner for retirement policy at the Social Security Administration, appeared with Mr. Bush at a campaign-style event to promote privatization. There was a time when it would have been considered inappropriate for a civil servant to play such a blatantly political role. But then there was a time when it would have been considered inappropriate to appoint a professional advocate like Mr. Biggs, the former assistant director of the Cato Institute's Project on Social Security Privatization, to such a position in the first place.

Sure enough, The New York Times reports that under Mr. Biggs's direction, employees of the Social Security Administration are being forced to disseminate dire warnings about the system's finances - warnings that the employees say are exaggerated.

Still, there are two reasons why the selling of Social Security privatization shouldn't be another slam dunk.

One is that we're not talking about secret intelligence; the media, if they do their job, can check out the numbers and see that they don't match what Mr. Bush is saying. (A good starting point is Roger Lowenstein's superb survey in The Times Magazine last Sunday.)

The other is that we've been here before. Fool me once ...

So if someone you know only tells you the things they do not like about someone are you going to believe them or go out and find out the truth?

I have not looked into it in detail because I have not planned on social security being around or having any need for it since I was 15 or 16. What I do like is that it is an attempt by the govt. to give back some control of the funds that I have poured into it since I wasas 15. Wheather it will work or not remains to be seen.

I have not reached the conclusion that privitization is bad simply because of a few counter opinions. However, the op-ed and others who have come out and questioned the degree to which SS is truly in a state of impending doom the way that it is being portrayd by the Bush Administration makes me question if this is reality or another attempt to spin reality to satisfy other agendas.

I doubt he could fool everyone.

WRt to the war. The unbiased accounts show no intentional misrepresentation by the admin. So the authors whole premise is to play on paranoia and conspiracy theory.

So ther real question is do you want to bet on it the way it is now or try and fix it in a manner that gives some individual control back to the little guy? I think that is worth looking into without any regard to political bent.

Bush only pretends to be a president; he's really a lobbyist for Wall Street.

Sadly there are those that will believe his rhetoric without question, just as they still believe there were WMDs and we found them.

Oh yeah, and there's really only three areas in Iraq that aren't safe. :rolleyes:

northern, central and southern.

I bet you guys think that 401-K deal is a window cleaner

Their Midol must have run out.

Yes, Midol running out... reality of another 4 years of the Bushinator is rushing in.

Geez, and with the ever-imposing medical lobbyist in the Whitehouse screwing with Medicare and Medicaid, I can't even afford a refill of my Midol. :rolleyes:

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GH,

I hate to see you in pain, it might help if you put a hot water bottle over stomach and lie on your side for the next four years.

Nope, think I'll just stay inebriated instead. That keeps my local homebrew supply store and pub in business. Someone's got to do something to foster the local economy. Help sure ain't coming from DC.

Bush help local ecomony??? Not unless Haliburton has an office around here somewhere.

Trust Bush? Not a chance, the guy never operated a solvent business and made his money by selling shares just before it was announced that the business he was in was tanking!Made his real money by just being the son of the Pres's son...This guy would be a No-body if it were not for his Daddy!

Ahh fishhy you are such an overwhelming success in life we should take your word for it right? Sounds like sour grapes nothing more nothing less.

Too bad this thread turned into the usual "bash Bush" routine and was not used to examine the question of allowing Americans the option of contributing a portion of their social security taxes to a personal account.

Thought there might acually be an interesting discussion under this thread. Oh well...

Every discussion about every subject here turns into a negative for the Bush Basher Club...They hate him so much they just have to go negative on anything that Bush is involved in. They cannot separate their hate from the issues.

I think when the Dems were in power reforming social security was on their agenda as they recognized that the system had some problems. Now that the Rs are in power social security is fine according to the Dems and doesn't need any reform.

I listened to John Kerry this morning about the Iraqi elections for example...He just had to put a negative slant on a good situation...I hope he runs again...what a pompous pontificating blowhard.

So it's all made up, tk?

What were the big successes Bush had as a businessman? Do tell.

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Agreed!

What a JERK O_F!

Even the 'enlightened' liberal and former member of the Carter admistration Bob Beckel said this morning that John Kerry was WAAAAY out of line talking $hit today as 60% or more of the Iraqi people turned out to be able to freely cast a vote for the first time in their lives after living under a murderous dictator for over 20 years.

Despite what old Hanoi John sKerry says, this a is GOOD day in the history of freedom.

it better be a GOOD day in the history of freedom,it cost lots of AMERICAN lives not to mention tax payer dollars.