Boy in the Bubble
Watching the Presidential press conference tonight (transcript)
it became apparent that the President is stuck in "Boy in the Bubble" syndrome. It is no secret that he does not read any newspapers, has all information filtered by few close confidants, and is uniquely stubborn once his mind is made up. So many instances which the cognative dissonance became apparent, it was hard to watch - watching the House floor vote on the consolidated Budget conference bill was less excruciating.
Here are my favorite parts, in no certain order:
- Insisting that his nominee for the U.N. Ambassador, John Bolton, was a friend of the UN. Asking Bolton if he felt that the UN had any value, and Bolton answering in the affirmative; which means that either the President is lying or John Bolton lied to the President.
- Blaming Clinton for the high energy prices. I believe the President said (roughly), "If we had an energy plan 10 years ago, we wouldn't be in this mess." Please. Newt's Contract with America called for the elimination of the Department of Energy. Nice try, big boy. See more at Left Coaster.
- Saying that No Child Left Behind was fully funded, when all data points to the contrary; claiming it worked, only because we were testing people.
- Claiming that he had a plan to "save" Social Security, while Democrats did not. Note to the President: our plan is Social Security; its' worked for 75 years or so.
- Claiming, in his double-speak code, that Social Security is just full of IOU's, and that each year that we wait $200 billion is added to the deficit. Sorry, wrong. What happened to "full faith and credit" printed on those Treasury Bonds (which your fortune is tied up in, by the way)? I guess the stock market will be crashing tomorrow since much of other world government's funds are tied up in US Treasury Bonds.
- Faith: claiming that he has never used his faith for political gain. Please. Read more about this little gem.
- Faith: I let my actions speak for themselves. Fine, what are you doing with the Bugman?
Oh, and the "plan" which the President has "chosen" is the Pozen Plan, which would cut benefits for the middle class. Not to mention fundamentally change Social Security, and actually changing it to a new type of Welfare.
Senator Biden in a pushback on ABC afterward went full bore on the President calling him on the IOU's bamboozlement, and the fact that those IOU's ARE Treasury Bills! Also, Sen. Biden's response to bobblehead's question about a Democrat plan was classic: (roughly)
We have plenty of plans! But look, the President has to be a leader on this. Nothing he said tonight dealt anything with solvency.
Quite right: the President actually has to come up with a plan, not just blow smoke inside his bubble. Not to repeat myself, but this is important: Democrats have a plan, and it's called Social Security. The President wants to get rid of Social Security and replace the guaranteed benefits with something else. But we don't quite know what that is. Even if he talks about the Pozen Plan.
The Boy in the Bubble never quite mastered the art of the press conference; tonight was no different.
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This is the permanent home of Boy in the Bubble. I wrote this post at 20:58 on April 28, 2005. This post is part of grubbykid.com, a weblog. If you liked this entry, why don't you read some other posts such as Students Filibuster Frist or Republican Values? Or you could go to the site archives or return home. All are good choices.
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Some descriptive tags for this entry are: BushCo politics media.
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Some descriptive tags for this entry are: BushCo, media, politics.
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