Ivins on Social Security "Reform:" Not a Nest Egg, a Rotten Egg

She also notes something others have pointed out, including your's truly:

Bush said, "I know some Americans have reservations about investing in the stock market, so I propose that one investment option will consist entirely of treasury bonds, which are backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government." These are exactly the same treasury bonds that currently guarantee Social Security and have been described by Bush, including in the very same press conference, as a cabinet full of "worthless IOUs."

Molly also notes the inside-the-beltway phenomenon of claiming budget cuts are actually increases:

Bush used another common disinformation claim out of Washington -- we are not cutting the benefits, we are merely slowing the rate of growth in the benefits. This is a perennial form of government lying.

"Of course we are not cutting Head Start. We are spending more money on Head Start than ever -- look, here's this figure in our budget, it is more than it was last year, and so that is an increase."

Except, since there are ever more kids who qualify for Head Start (and even at the lowest level, the program has never been fully funded), when the increase in funding is way too small to cover the increase in the number of most needy kids, what you have effectively done is decrease the spending per child in the program, and that is, in fact, cutting the program. It will not work as well. That this old dog still hunts is a shame on the arithmetic teachers of America.

Aside: they do the same with Veteran's Administration budgets.

But at least we now know that most of us are wealthy--in fact, anyone making more than $20,000 dollars a year is in that elite group.

Maybe that'll help me out the next time I go out on the town: "Honey, did I mention that I'm filthy rich?"