Exploiting a Misconception

WaPo reports President Bush's meticulously stage-managed presentations on Social Security have slowly shifted into a new phase, in which White House aides find misinformed young people to share the stage with the president and assert that Social Security won't be there at all when they retire.

They are right, it won't be.

And rather than correcting them on their misconception -- government estimates, after all, say that after 2041 Social Security will still be able to pay at least three-quarters of currently promised benefits without any changes -- Bush congratulates them on their perspicacity.

A 20 year old will be 56 in 2041, i.e. not yet eligible to retire, and that 3/4 figure gets even worse from that point on. If there is anything left when they are ready to retire they will be very lucky indeed.

Bush isn't saying much new at these events, and attention in Washington is currently focused elsewhere. But as he steadily pivots the focal point of his events from older people to younger, he is increasingly using hand-picked people under 30 as props in a scare campaign.

They are the ones that would be helped the most by persona l accounts

He's still telling seniors not to listen to all those unspecified people trying to frighten them by saying their benefits are about to be cut.

He is telling the truth. Current retirees and people about to retire, will not see any changes.

But he himself is forcefully asserting to young people that for them, when it comes to Social Security, the sky is falling.

Telling them the truth