As the finagling over Social Security privatization lingo continues, it would be worthwhile to ask President Bush why he himself has changed his song.
As Dan Froomkin recently pointed out:
“The past several weeks, Bush has been calling Social Security at various times a crisis (see my Jan. 10 column) or a problem (see my Dec. 10 column). And he’s been getting a lot of heat for calling it a crisis.
“Yesterday, I’m guessing everyone got together and agreed: No more crisis! Say problem instead! In his talk, Bush only used the word crisis once, when mocking his critics. Problem, he used 29 times.”
This from a president who last year claimed, “If I tried to fine-tune my messages based upon polls, I think I’d be pretty ineffective. I know I would be disappointed in myself. … And as to whether or not I make decisions based upon polls, I don’t. I just don’t make decisions that way.”
Someone might ask President Bush: Do you no longer believe that Social Security faces a funding crisis? And if not, why have you stopped using the word?