Our feckless opposition party, Part Three

Below, I criticize Senate Democrats for largely avoiding substance in opposing the nomination of John Bolton for UN ambassador. The Democrats have been talking substance when it comes to social security. But the MSM-oriented Annenberg organization finds that they are doing so dishonestly. Specifically, it finds that the Dems web-based “calculator,” which purports to tell people how much they will lose under the president’s privatization plan, is “rigged” because it is “based on a number of false assumptions and deceptive comparisons.” The “calculator” first appeared on the web site of Minority Leader Harry Reid. Apparently it now appears on the web sites of 16 Democratic Senators, as well as that of Americans United to Save Social Security, a coalition that includes the AFL-CIO and Moveon.org.
Among other things, Reid’s calculator assumes that the value of stocks will increase at a rate 3 percent higher than the rate of inflation. Over the past century, however, the average rate has been 6.8. It tries to justify low-balling stock gains in this way by claiming to rely on assumptions used by the Congressional Budget Office. However, as the Annenberg piece shows, the CBO actually assumed a 6.8 percent future return on equities.
Please read the whole thing.
Hat tip: Mark Tapscott

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