The News 2/3/05

Great NPR fact-checking on the State of the Union.
On Social Security: Trouble after 2042, dire emergency! Fund bankrupt! Alas! Alack!! Turns out, this is just not true. Even in 2042 the fund will be able to pay 70% of benefits. On the other side, the rhetoric about a 40% "cut" b/c of reforms is also overblown.
How about tort reform? No one understands the issue. There is no way to prove that lawsuits negatively impact the economy. Lawsuits can be useful and the issue needs to be fully understood before we go about curtailing people's rights to seek justice.
Education: Sigh. What can I say. Bush lies and lies and lies about this program. THere is absolutely no proof that it is working in any way. Taken on average, the program is doing nothing but causing heartache for teachers everywhere who now have to teach to some dumb test instead of working on getting children to actually learn skills they can use in real life. When was the last time you took a standardized test to get ahead in your job, say? And when was the last time you had to use general problem-solving skills? My bet is that you've done the latter far more than the former. (I have to say, I interjected a lot of my personal feelings here, in case you did not notice.)
Deficit: Bush says: I will cut it in half by 2009 without cutting back on ANYTHING SUBSTANTIVE (by this I mean domestic programs). Well, hate to burst your bubble on this one, chief, but domestic programs only account for 16% of the budget. How do you get a reduction by half (that would be 50%) out of cutting some of 16% of the budget? Hmmm. I'll have to think on that one for a while. Quite a while. He failed to mention any cuts in defense spending, which is the bulk of our spending. Oh well. Who listens to this sh*t anyway, right?
On spreading democracy: Bush said he was all for speading democracy and not tolerating human rights abuses anywhere, but his policies over the last 4 years say otherwise. They say, "It is ok to be non-democratic as long as you have lots of oil or a huge economy."
Well, there you have it. NPR did a very nice job on covering the speech, including getting the opinions of three diverse groups:
Retirees in MO: some were skeptical of Social Security reform, (mostly democrats), but all were convinced that there was no crisis. Both sides agreed that the ideals Bush communicated were great, but they did not see how we could achieve them without sacrificing some -- like paying higher taxes.
Grad students from Tufts U.: "puzzled silence" on SS reform. Did not understand why Bush is acting like there is a fire. They understand that SS will not be their sole support in retirement and already had private accounts to make up for the gap. Duh. They did not hear enough about Afghanastan or the environment or global economics. Too much focus on "non-emergency" domestic issues.
Ft. Lewis, WA (big military base): Went to a bar called galloping gerties. Most of the young men there support the "private account" idea. Many people are deployed, so everyone at home still is worried about a timetable for Iraq. Some want to pull out ASAP, some don't. For the most part, people were not paying attention to the speech (you could hardly hear it over the music) -- they were too busy listening to the juke box and playing pool. By far more important than the state of our nation.

There was also an interesting report on campaign finance reform, which is being spearheaded by John McCain. He is going after 527s (like moveon.org and Swift Boat Veterins for Truth). Both sides were represented here, the reformers who want to see huge donations to 527s go away and those who think that cracking down on 527s curtails free speech. Very interesting.