President Bush’s meticulously stage-managed presentations on Social Security have slowly shifted into a new phase, in which White House aides find misinformed young people to share the stage with the president and assert that Social Security won’t be there at all when they retire.
And rather than correcting them on their misconception — government estimates, after all, say that after 2041 Social Security will still be able to pay at least three-quarters of currently promised benefits without any changes — Bush congratulates them on their perspicacity.