A Stitch in Haste

To review: There are only three "dials to fiddle with" in addressing the Social Security crisis:

1. cut / curtail benefits


2. raise the retirement age


3. raise taxes

There are no other approaches, no other options. This is more than basic economics — it's basic metaphysics.

Armed with that:

Hillary Rodham Clinton promised retirees that if elected president she will not cut Social Security benefits, raise the retirement age or privatize the taxpayer-funded system.

Okay, no benefit cuts and no increase in the retirement age. So she's promising to raise your taxes — because she cares about you.

Just one problem: she doesn't mention taxes either:

Clinton said instead she will protect the program through fiscal responsibility and criticized President Bush's leadership on the issue.

"Fiscal responsibility"? What kind of spineless blather is that?

no benefit cuts + no raised retirement age = tax increases
This is the moral defective who dares to claim that she represents "strong leadership"? But she's too much the coward to actually say what she means. To her the word "tax" is the political mouse that sends her shrieking atop the kitchen table like a caricature 1950s housewife?

At least the first President Bush, when he lied about "no new taxes," actually used the word "taxes" as part of the lie. He gave us "Read my lips..." — Clinton gives us "Read between the lines..."

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There is of course another possibility: Clinton simply thinks her supporters are all morons. Hey — she's the one implying it. So scowl at her, not me. On the other hand, I reiterate my befuddlement toward those who somehow conclude that "Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton" is the solution rather than the problem.

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Another hasty stitch:

"This is the most successful domestic program in the history of the United States," Clinton said to applause from seniors gathered in Washington to push their policy agenda.

Liar.

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One more, via the New York Times' blog, The Caucus:

"We need to get back to the fiscal responsibility of the 1990's when we weren't raiding the social security trust fund"

Given that Congress will certainly stay under Democratic control after the election, anyone who yearns for "the fiscal responsibility of the 1990's" must, by definition, vote Republican in 2008, since it was gridlock, not the supposed budgetary genius of Bill Clinton, that kept government spending in check from 1995-2000.