When President Bush gives his next State of the Union address, he’ll talk about Social Security. He’ll say the program is in a $10 trillion crisis and compare it to the iceberg that sank the Titanic.

He won’t say, however, that his $10 trillion figure is an estimate measured over infinite time – a projection that actuaries consider deceptive. He’ll not say that the trustees of the program project the deficit over the next 75 years to be $3.7 trillion. Bush will not compare this “crisis” to the 75-year deficit in Medicare ($8.1 trillion). Bush won’t mention the cost of his tax cuts over the next 75 years ($11.6 trillion). When he plugs privatizing Social Security in the stock market, he probably won’t mention that the S&P 500 has lost 20 percent of its value in the last five years.

Bush won’t remind you that his tax cuts benefit taxpayers with incomes greater than $200,000 by an average $78,000, because most of us got somewhat less. He won’t remind you of the tax cuts’ cost, because he doesn’t want Americans to realize that by forgoing a tax cut for the wealthy, we can save Social Security and Medicare, programs that protect the working classes of this country.

Finally, Bush will not mention how much money Wall Street will make in fees or how great the deficit will be if we gut Social Security as he wants to, rather than save it, as we should.

Margaret Imber, Turner

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