The president and the White House
have now compared their build-up to the Iraq war with their push to
phase out Social Security enough times that it seems worth creating a
detailed taxonomy of the Bush White House approach to major policy
initiatives in order to predict their efforts over the next two years.
The Journal said last week …
The president has yet to lay out specific ideas for changing the
entitlement program; he and his aides are focused first on selling the
idea of change. “For a while, I think it's important for me to continue
to work with members of both parties to explain the problem,” he said
in a Monday news conference.
This would suggest that we're now in the lying and fear-mongering
phase of the campaign, which would be followed of course by a later
phase in which a specific policy remedy is brought forward, nominally
meant to address the fake problem.
Perhaps if folks could note beginning and end points of various
phases of the Iraq war mumbojumbo that could help us pinpoint signs to
look for in the unfolding Social Security debate. [Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall]