Fox's Kondracke tries to tell truth -but Brit Hume forces Lie on Soc Sec

[papau]

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Following President Bush's State of the Union address, in which he described his plan to let workers divert a portion of their payroll taxes into private investment accounts, reporters and commentators have repeatedly and falsely claimed that private accounts are an attempt to address Social Security's long-term revenue shortfall, which the Social Security trustees estimate at $3.7 trillion http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/TR/TR04/II_project.html#wp105724 over the next 75 years. In fact, even the White House has admitted that private accounts will do nothing to address this shortfall. Rather, Bush's plan will likely address http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52565-2005Jan31.html the solvency of the program through substantial cuts in guaranteed benefits

On the February 3 edition of FOX News' Special Report with Brit Hume, Roll Call executive editor and FOX News contributor Morton M. Kondracke accurately pointed out that even administration officials have admitted that private accounts will do nothing to address the solvency problem, contrary to Bush's public statements. But Hume insisted, "The president, as a matter of fact, is correct about that," and abruptly cut off Kondracke when he tried to respond:

KONDRACKE: Well, I think the Democrats actually got a little bit of an assist today when it was reported that a senior White House -- senior administration official at a briefing yesterday said that there was no way that individual accounts would help solve the solvency problem of the Social Security system. And yesterday the president was, in effect, arguing that private accounts were a way of solving the solvency problem. Or at least that's what --

HUME: The president, as a matter of fact, is correct about that.

KONDRACKE: Well, but -- but it won't, in fact. You're going to have to cut --

HUME: Mort, we're not going to argue that tonight.

[rodeodance]

1. Brit cuts off Mort--getting desperate!

[PDittie]

2. No dissent allowed

You're either with us or against us.

(Though they can keep the rest of Mort Kondracke's ideas.)