During the press conference today, Bush responded to a couple of questions on Social Security. Several times he claimed reporters were "trying to get me to negotiate with myself," whatever that means. He elaborated that the press was trying to get him to "set paramaters apart from Congress" and "trick" him into "playing all my cards."
Now I can understand not wanting to play all the cards if the subject is national security and the cards might be classified intelligence reports. But when it comes to the debate about Social Security, what cards is he withholding and why?
He suggested that his"negotiations" would be with the legislators, not himself. Maybe he means he would prefer to leave the public out of the decision-making process. If so, this stance would contradict with his philosophy of the "ownership society" wherein the stakeholders "own" their future and therefore work harder to create a better country.
Bush repeated that his main goal right know is to "explain to members of Congress" that Social Security is in crisis. It seems to me that such an attitude is a pert demeaning to members of Congress. I am sure our legislators have the ability to research for themselves the topic of Social Security.
Bush emphasized that personal accounts would have "serious guidelines." To understand this statement replace "guidelines" with "regulations.", So much for true ownership. The only thing truly personal about these accounts is the losses they will sustain.
Bush said that these personal accounts would "provide capital for entrepreneural expansion." He forgets that stockholders, for the most part, buy and sell stock from each other. Only a small percentage goes to the companies people may believe they are investing in. I read somewhere that it is a mistake to study the performance of a company, that it make more sense to study the performance of a stock which is only tangently related to the performance of the company.
He tried to reassure the retired and near-retired (need a definition for near-retired) that "they don't have to worry about anything." Senior who accept this reassurance may become apathetic about social security. It may be an empty reassurance, and if it is not, such apathy may dilute opposition to the plight of the young who come to depend on these personal accounts whose value is likely to evaporate in the massive stock sell-off necessary to convert a retirement fund to cash for expenses.