Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Get Him Drunk, We Bet, and He Talks Like Adlai Stevenson

This is circulating on the internet (thanks, Bobbie), so we checked it out (because occasionally somebody makes stuff up, duh), and apparently the following exchange took place in Orlanda, Fla., at one of El Presidente's let's-strangle-Social-Security-in-the-bathtub events, and as we are admirers of clear English, we thought we'd give the little man credit, when credit is so richly due:

Woman in audience: "I don't really understand. How is it the new [Social Security] plan is going to fix that [deficit] problem?"

President Bush: "Because the -- all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculated, for example, is on the table. Whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those -- changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be -- or closer delivered to that has been promised. Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of things that cause the -- like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate -- the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those -- if that growth is affected, it will help -- on the red."

Left his secret transmitter earpiece at home that day? Audience screening missed a ringer, i.e., someone who asks a concise, direct question?
Revealing moment, when the Social Security Reformer-in-Chief doesn't have a clue what he's talking about.

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