Vince Avedon – 2/6/05

This page was last updated on February 12, 2005.

Why believe Bush’s lies?; Vince Avedon; Beaver County Times; February 6, 2005. (There is no link to the letter because the Times had a problem with its web site on February 6^th and the opinion section was not posted. I apologize for any transcription errors below.)

Mr. Avedon has written at least eight letters since September 2004 bashing President Bush and Republicans, including at least five specifically about Iraq.

I don’t know what Mr. Avedon knows so I can’t call him a liar. That said, his letter is full of falsehoods.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Fifty one percent of Americans have been bushwhacked and either don’t realize it or won’t admit it.”

[RWC] So those of us who voted for President Bush are stupid or liars? How often do we hear the tired old liberal refrain that conservatives are stupid?

“They bought into the State of the Union WMD lie. Then, after ignoring the world, Bush ‘quietly’ stopped looking for WMDs. What will be the lie for Iran? When asked, ‘Why haven’t we caught Osama?’ his TV reply was, ‘Because he’s hiding.’ Duh.”

[RWC] Every “post mortem” performed so far on the Iraq WMD issue made the following conclusions. First, no one in the Bush administration exerted pressure on the intelligence services to come up with a pre-determined assessment. Second, the Bush administration – and Congress – did not misrepresent the information provided to it by U.S. and foreign intelligence services. That is, the Bush administration – as well as Congress – acted in good faith with the information they had. Remember, the existence of WMD in Iraq was a unanimous conclusion of the United Nations Security Council. The Clinton administration made the same assessment.

Regarding “after ignoring the world,” I suspect Mr. Avedon would have written this even if the only dissenting country had been Cuba. Apparently Mr. Avedon believes the 40+ countries working with us in Iraq are not part of the world.

“Bush ‘quietly’ stopped looking for WMDs?” The hunt went on for nearly two years and there were numerous hearings and reports, all public. Was it “quiet” because Mr. Avedon didn’t receive personal notification? FYI, the Iraq Survey Group has not been disbanded. It continues to review documents and will pursue any new leads if they pop up.

“He claims to bring democracy to Iraq. Peter Grose reported in the New York Times on Sept. 4, 1967, that U.S. officials were surprised and heartened at the 83 percent turnout in South Vietnam’s election despite a Vietcong campaign to disrupt the voting.”

[RWC] Oh man, the Iraq = Vietnam story. Please, get a new playbook. On second thought, no, keep making the same arguments.

“For almost 100 years, elections were held in Egypt. Would you consider Egypt a democracy? And let’s not forget Jordan, another example of Middle East democracy?”

[RWC] No one ever claimed elections = democracy. Odd that Mr. Avedon didn’t use the former Soviet Union as an example, or is it?

Perhaps Mr. Avedon should do some research before he makes his claims. The “Hashimite Kingdom of Jordan” is not, never was, and never claimed to be a democracy. Its constitution refers to Jordan as a constitutional hereditary monarchy.

“Now this same guy wants us to believe that privatizing Social Security is a good thing. Ha. All financial advisors disclose the risks of investing. Why doesn’t the Social Security Administration invest in the market? Because there’s a risk of making bad choices (Enron, MCI, etc), the market could tank, management fees could soar and your account would be empty.”

[RWC] President Bush never said he wanted to privatize Socialist Security. He merely proposes that taxpayers be given the option to invest a portion of their taxes in personal accounts, but still under the oversight of the SSA. Here’s an excerpt from President Bush’s 2005 State of the Union speech on this subject.

“Here is why personal accounts are a better deal. Your money will grow, over time, at a greater rate than anything the current system can deliver -- and your account will provide money for retirement over and above the check you will receive from Social Security. In addition, you’ll be able to pass along the money that accumulates in your personal account, if you wish, to your children or grandchildren. And best of all, the money in the account is yours, and the government can never take it away.

“The goal here is greater security in retirement, so we will set careful guidelines for personal accounts. We will make sure the money can only go into a conservative mix of bonds and stock funds. We will make sure that your earnings are not eaten up by hidden Wall Street fees. We will make sure there are good options to protect your investments from sudden market swings on the eve of your retirement. We will make sure a personal account can't be emptied out all at once, but rather paid out over time, as an addition to traditional Social Security benefits. And we will make sure this plan is fiscally responsible, by starting personal retirement accounts gradually, and raising the yearly limits on contributions over time, eventually permitting all workers to set aside four percentage points of their payroll taxes in their accounts.”

Remember, it’s a choice. Taxpayers would still have the option of leaving all their SS taxes in the old/current SS plan. In either case, the taxes come out of your paycheck and go to the SSA.

Mr. Avedon asks why the SSA doesn’t invest. That’s simple. The laws enabling SS require the SSA to “invest” collected taxes in U.S. government bonds. The reason for this has nothing to do with risk. Any SS taxes invested in private sector stocks and bonds would not be available for politicians – both Democrats and Republicans – to spend.

May we assume Mr. Avedon will propose that 401(k), IRA, and government and union pension plans should not be allowed to invest in anything other than U.S. government bonds because of the risk? May we assume all of Mr. Avedon’s investments are in U.S. government securities?

“If the Republicans want to impress me, then raise the cap to $140,000 on Social Security tax. Don’t toss me a $300 bone once a year. Reduce the taxes on my weekly paycheck.”

[RWC] Here we go; increase the Socialist Security tax. For what it’s worth, upping the cap won’t fix the problem. The cap increases every year by law. At $90,000, today’s cap is 30 times its original $3,000. In any case, SS was not intended to be a wealth transfer mechanism, though it already penalizes those with “higher than average” lifetime earnings.

Regarding the tax cuts, Mr. Avedon should pay attention. He would find the income tax withholding rate was automatically reduced when the tax cuts took effect. Therefore, the Bush administration did “reduce the taxes on [Mr. Avedon’s] weekly paycheck.” If that didn’t do the trick, Mr. Avedon can submit a revised W-4 form to cut withholding.

“Fifty one percent got bushwhacked again when pre-election Bush wanted to amend the Constitution. After the election, he says it’s not necessary. Is that a flip-flopper or just a player for votes?”

[RWC] Mr. Avedon was so busy fretting over the 2003 State of the Union speech, he apparently didn’t listen to the 2005 SOTU. President Bush said, “Because marriage is a sacred institution and the foundation of society, it should not be re-defined by activist judges. For the good of families, children, and society, I support a constitutional amendment to protect the institution of marriage.”

“If Bush were to tell me that the sun comes up in the east, I’ll wait and let you know tomorrow.”

[RWC] Mr. Avedon as a judge of the truth?