Before we get into it, our official 2005 agitprop nickname for Karl Rove will be "Turdblossom". This is Rove's actual nickname given to him by Bush based on the Texas term for a weed that grows out of a pile of horse shit.
A White House memo has been released that reveals the Turdblossom-based strategy for hyping Social Security doom. We've read this story before when it came to the "imminent threat" from Iraq and their invisible stockpiles of WMD. MSNBC has the story:
The success of President Bush’s push to remake Social Security depends on convincing the public that the system is “heading for an iceberg,” according to a White House strategy note that makes the case for cutting benefits promised for the future.
The e-mail memo, written by Turdblossom deputy Peter Wehner, essentially makes the case that they should reform Social Security because they can. And in order to do that, they need to disseminate fallacies about the program's dire straits. From the actual memo:
We need to establish in the public mind a key fiscal fact: right now we are on an unsustainable course. That reality needs to be seared into the public consciousness; it is the pre-condition to authentic reform.
"Reality"? We all know that the White House admits to existing in a non-reality based community. So when they speak of "reality", translate that to "lie".
First, there is no crisis. Second, how did the Clinton era Democrats intend to insure Social Security? Eliminate the deficit and contribute the surplus to Social Security. Remember Gore's "lockbox" mantra? Bush was handed this solution in 2001 and instead chose to give the wealthy a tax cut; run up record deficits; go to war in Iraq; lie about a crisis; and ultimately kill Social Security once and for all.