Saturday, March 05, 2005

Bush: Foolish consistency

Few people have ever proven as conclusively as George W. Bush the perceptiveness of Emerson's dictum that "foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds."
Check out the New York Times report on Bush on social security in 1978:

"Mr. Bush had long been intrigued by the idea of allowing workers to put part of their Social Security taxes into stocks and bonds. One Tuesday in the summer of 1978, in the heat of his unsuccessful race for a House seat from West Texas, Mr. Bush went to Midland Country Club to give a campaign speech to local real estate agents and discussed the issue in terms not much different from those he uses now.

Social Security "will be bust in 10 years unless there are some changes," he said, according to an account published the next day in The Midland Reporter-Telegram. 'The ideal solution would be for Social Security to be made sound and people given the chance to invest the money the way they feel.'"

(Thanks to Joshua Micah Marshall's Talking Points Memo" for pointing this out)

1 comment:

Steve said...

Nice blog..... interesting posts. Certainly thought provoking ideas.

Steve