Can’t get no respect?
First the New Hampshire fiasco; now <$NoAd$>this!
Just a couple days ago, President Bush gave the luxe treatment to the Quad City (Iowa) Times’ veteran political reporter Ed Tibbetts to talk about Social Security phase-out.
The next thing you know, they’re whacking him on their editorial page.
The Times sent veteran political reporter Ed Tibbetts to Washington for a special White House briefing with President Bush specifically to share insight with readers about this important debate.
Among the most critical questions: What is the president willing to accept in terms of raising the retirement age, curtailing benefits, increasing payroll deductions or extending the taxation to higher incomes?
On almost all, our president declined to share his thoughts. âThe more I preclude ideas, itâs less likely something might come forth. This is going to have to be written by the Congress along with our input,â the president said.
…
We know from experience our Presidentâs administration has a tough time processing information. Recall that cost estimates of the Medicare drug benefit werenât even in realityâs ballpark. The Bush administrationâs newest estimates are more than double what they swore to 20 months ago when pitching the plan to Congress.
And the president and staff missed wildly on weapons of mass destruction. Regardless of the warâs present outcome, Congress authorized a search and destroy mission for weapons, not the liberation of a country. That misinterpretation cost 1,462 American lives so far and affected millions more whose families have been directly touched by war.
Social Security affects many, many more â less violently for sure. But for the millions who will be absolutely reliant on that retirement or disability income, Social Security can be a life or death matter.
If the system indeed is in crisis, we canât afford to guesstimate our way out of it.
Oops.
