or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
December 10, 2004
"I Don't Expect To Get Anything From The Kurds... They're Not Going To Be There," Said Saddam
Yesterday Kevin Drum mentioned a CBS story about Social Security that interviewed a man on the street named Tad DeHaven, saying he "could be the poster child for Social Security reform." DeHaven mournfully told CBS, "I don't expect to get anything from Social Security. I don't consider it in terms of my long term planning. It's not going to be there."
A problem, Drum mentions, is that DeHaven is not just some guy, as he was presented. He's a long time advocate of Social Security privatization. He worked for the Heritage Foundation, Cato, and now is employed by the National Taxpayers Union. Yup, just a regular fellow off the street, who happened to write a book called "War Between the Generations: Federal Spending on the Elderly Set to Explode."
So DeHaven forgot to finish what he was saying. It should have been: "I don't expect to get anything from Social Security. It's not going to be there... because lots of people like me are paid lots of money to make sure it's not."
Posted at December 10, 2004 05:14 PM | TrackBackI would be happy to take the Tadster's Social Security checks and make his little prophesy come true. In fact, a preemptive check taking might be just the thing. He could be really, really mournful then.
Posted by: Harry at December 10, 2004 06:57 PMViolation of the Commons. 5 points off for all of them; the reporter and editor who didn't resign in disgust, CBS for toadying to their corporate instincts.
Didn't this happen to some others a couple months ago?
Why does anyone believe anything they say?
Posted by: SiegeState at December 11, 2004 12:08 AMPutting aside the sad, but hilarious fact that this was presented on CBS, The Daily Howler blog (http://www.dailyhowler.com has had several postings over the past week showing how the media has furthered this mantra that Social Security is broken. Very enlightening, as was this posting.
