Doublethink

Josh Marshall brings home an important point on the President's initiative to "save" social security. As with the "Healthy Forests", "Clear Skies", and "No Child Left Behind" initiatives (amongst others, that went before) the administration's intentions are the complete antithesis of the branding: otherwise known as doublethink.

The President has no intentions of saving social security, he is bent on gutting it.

Clearly, this isn't about 'saving' Social Security. It is a battle to end Social Security and replace with something that Wehner clearly understands is very different, indeed the antithesis of Social Security.

This entire debate is about ideology -- between people who believe in the benefits Social Security has brought America in the last three-quarters of a century and those who think it was a bad idea from the start. There is an honest debate to have on this point, a values debate. Only, the White House understands that the belief that Social Security was always a bad program isn't widely shared by Americans. So they have to wrap their effort in a package of lies, harnessing Americans' desire to save Social Security in their own effort to destroy it.

As others have pointed out, the real problem is not social security, but rather the combination of medicare, because medical costs in this country are so out of control, and the general fund (the rest of the budget) which because of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy and the war in Iraq have us running at a serious deficit approaching a half a trillion dollars a year. Note that that deficit would actually be far worse than the reported half trillion were it not for the fact that social security is running a surplus which the government promptly snarfs up to defray its deficit spending.

If the administration wanted to save social security, then it would be discussing options such as raising the salary cap for social security contributions above the current $80K USD and/or raising the retirement age by a couple of years. More importantly, the real problems should be tackled; namely medicare and the deficit spending (oh, and ending the sensless war in Iraq!)

But no, the President and his minions will be flooding the airwaves with repeated propaganda that claims that social security is headed for a brick wall, that the generations following the Baby Boomers will not receive the same levels of benefits as are currently enjoyed by seniors, that the social security trust fund will be bankrupt by 2028; all of which are outright untruths.

The only crisis we face is a crisis of knowledge.