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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Peter Dierks who wrote (682322)	5/15/2005 10:41:37 AM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

"FUD is not limited to politicians. It is used in business too." Yes, while MSFT might not have 'invented' the process... they've probably raised it's use to a here-to-fore yet unachieved High Art. The once and future kings of FUD. "Let us deal with the problem of Social Security now." Well... if you want to attack the smaller problem first.... Personally, I believe that a comprehensive reform of our tax code --- designed to produce a simpler, fairer, system with lower rates (or 'rate') and the drastic elimination of loopholes that reduce our economy's potential for growth by diverting businesses and people into actions aimed at merely capturing tax benefits, instead of actions based upon true economic benefits --- would be BY FAR the most desirable federal action that could be accomplished now. By pushing 'tax reform' off until "2006" (a mid-term election year), and by creating a 'tax reform commission' that has already announced they will not try for comprehensive (they call it 'radical') tax reform --- Bush has practically guaranteed that nothing effective will be accomplished. It will merely be reserved (apparently) for a 'campaign issue' for politicians to run on. And, by pushing SS 'reform' this year (instead of tax reform... or even addressing the much larger problems of Medicare and health care), he likely will achieve nothing on SS... as well as nothing good on tax reform. A strategic mistake of gargantuan proportions, IMO. "After we have a solution that pushes back insolvency for a couple more decades, then let us address Medicare. Medicare has been balanced for a long time by paying doctors next to nothing." Well... Medicare/Medicaid is MUCH CLOSER to total insolvency then SS... and the unfunded Medicare/Medicaid mandates are approximately 4 to 5 times as large as the unfunded SS mandates are projected to be. So, I find the inaction perplexing. In my opinion: NEITHER PROGRAM can be 'fixed' by more federal borrowing, adding more to the federal deficit.