Social Security, FDR, GW, etc.
Truth is, only I really know how FDR feels about Social Security reform, because I've been channeling FDR ever since Bush proposed reform - don't laugh - and FDR has been following the issue closely. And he channels Maggie's Farm daily, I'm pleased to report. Anyway, here are some of the things he has communicated to me:
"I was proud of Social Security, but that was two or three generations ago. Times change, and solutions change. Experiment, and make it better. That's what I always tried to do with things."
"That young pup GW sure has some balls to him. I like him. A warrior with a heart."
"Any legislation is just a first draft. You see how it works in reality and then you adjust to reality. The real purpose was just to keep the elderly from dying in the gutter, not to advance socialism. That goal is my legacy, not how it's achieved. Economics was never my forte anyway."
"Don't listen to my relatives. They want me embalmed - well, I am embalmed - I mean they want my legislation embalmed. As a monument to their Gramps or great-Gramps or whatever. Ridiculous. Hell, look at the tricks I played with the courts - nothing is permanent as I see it. Even the Constitution."
"If you could channel me a double dry Beefeater martini, up, with two olives, I would welcome it very much right now. It's cocktail hour."
I missed a very good review piece by John Fund when it came out a few weeks ago, at the the time of the FDR flap - the Libs went berserko because conservatives quoted FDR on Social Security, but Mr. Fund doesn't have the channel to FDR that I have:
"One good spinoff from the debate over President Bush's Social Security reform is that everyone is finally discussing the program's "solvency." It's about time. Countless people still think there is a "trust fund" with real assets in it that is being held for them until they're old enough to collect retirement payments. It's time they learn the truth. As Harvard economist Martin Feldstein has noted, the system's solvency "is based on a complex accounting sham so duplicitous that it is hard to believe." Click here: Progress for America
