Stop Him Before He Lies Again
The New Republic online
NOTEBOOK
tnr.com
Post date 06.20.02 | Issue date 07.01.02
E-mail this article
Back in Houston last week, President George W. Bush again told what is
gradually becoming his favorite political anecdote: "You know, when I was
one time campaigning in Chicago, a reporter said, `Would you ever have a
deficit?' I said, `I can't imagine it, but there would be one if we had a war, or
a national emergency, or a recession.' Never did I dream we'd get the
trifecta." Even we're getting a little tired of pointing out that this story is
almost certainly untrue. No reporter who covered the 2000 campaign can
recall Bush ever having said anything like this; and despite repeated inquiries
from the media, the White House has never produced any evidence that he
did. (There are numerous examples, by contrast, of candidate Bush pledging
not to touch the Social Security surplus under any condition.) The first public
mention of Bush's exceptions came, conveniently enough, last August--just
as it became evident that the tax cut and slowing economy would likely force
him to dip into Social Security. Why does the truth or falsity of this anecdote
matter? Because perhaps the key policy issue that divided Bush and Al
Gore during the 2000 race was the Texas governor's massive tax cut
proposal. Bush claimed there was enough money to continue paying down
the debt, fund any additional spending needs that might arise, and still afford
his tax cut; Gore claimed there wasn't. Gore was right.
Bush's budget
forecasts were a tapestry of rosy predictions, accounting gimmicks, and
outright falsehoods that were already unraveling well before September 11.
(Remember the trillion-dollar contingency fund that Bush was promising little
more than one year ago? Us neither.) This is why Bush insists on reciting his
fraudulent "war, recession, or national emergency" story at every possible
opportunity--it gets him off the hook for the mountain of economic
dishonesty he shoveled in order to pass the tax cut. And it's why as long as
he keeps telling the story, we'll keep pointing out that it is almost certainly a
lie. |
