Word: programming
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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...tell the difference between Al ("We're for the people") Gore and George W. ("I trust the people") Bush? Take a look at what each candidate says at this week's debate about how to "save" Social Security. You have probably heard that the popular program will go bankrupt soon, but that's not exactly true. The real problem is that as the baby boomers retire and then live longer than previous cohorts, aid to the elderly will take up more of the budget, leaving little room for other priorities like health care or education. The solution we choose will...
Assuming Bush substantially cuts the guaranteed benefits paid by the government each year to retirees (he has so far avoided actually saying he would do this), he can reduce the long-term cost of the program. And if the stock market continues its historical rate of return of 7% a year (or even if it gains a more modest 4% a year), such cuts would be painless because most beneficiaries would retire with more money than they would otherwise receive under the current system. Giving workers private accounts should also help boost the dismal national savings rate...
Social Security's basic guarantees must not change, says Gore. So he proposes pouring more revenue into the program in order to fund the retirement of the baby boomers without having to raise payroll taxes or cut benefits. Since the Social Security system cannot keep big cash reserves of its own, Gore relies on a two-step process. He uses $3.5 trillion of the projected surpluses over the next 12 years to pay down the entire national debt; then he takes the resulting savings in interest payments (which by 2015 will amount to more than $220 billion a year...
...that if you want to devalue, you do so with proper international backing, and you never do it between Monday and Friday, and you never do it in December when you have most liquidity. All of which he did. And then they took two months to put an economic program into effect, and in that period, domestic interest rates went from 15% to 110% . There was no way that anyone could pay their bills. Zedillo tried to cover this up with a dis-information campaign blaming my administration. We did commit mistakes. But none of those insufficiencies or mistakes provoked...
...demeanor makes it hard for him to make an emotional connection, the exaggeration interferes with the intellectual one as well. Every time Gore embellishes his story about his dog's pharmacy bill, it becomes just a little harder to slam Bush for leaving people out of his prescription-drug program or favoring the rich at everyone else's expense. Voters may wonder whether Gore is playing fair, and they may not have the time to scour websites and analyze policy for themselves...