Thomas Lang, one of the indefatigable CJR Daily bloggers, claims in a new post that this passage from an AP report is mistaken:
President Bush, on a campaign-style road trip to pressure recalcitrant Democrats and reluctant Republicans on a Social Security, warned Friday against "scare tactics" in the burgeoning debate.
The president decried the kind of opposition campaigns now being waged against his proposals, saying they mislead seniors into thinking they won't get the Social Security checks on which they depend.
Lang writes (italics in original):
There is strong opposition to Bush's Social Security proposals. But we know of no example of opponents suggesting that current recipients of Social Security checks could be shortchanged by Bush's plan. It's an interesting accusation, but it's one that no one has made. And AP owes it to its readers to point that out.
But Factcheck.org has made that precise accusation against MoveOn.org's new TV ad, as I noted, and I think they're correct about it. And here's Terry McAuliffe doing the same thing in an email to supporters that I flagged a few weeks ago for suggesting that Bush is going to cut Social Security for today's seniors:
We will fight President Bush and his Republican cronies as they try to:
...Undermine Social Security for today's seniors and future generations of retirees by privatizing the system.
I'm sure there are more examples - feel free to add them in comments below.
Comments