Tuesday, January 04, 2005

dsquared...d'gaffe

Pace Michael Kinsley's definition of a gaffe--when a politician accidentally tells the truth--the Academy notes this bit of unintentional candor from a highly politicized economist in (where else!) the comments section of Semi-Daily Journal:

...if this is to be remotely analagous to the position of the US government, I would be able to meet those obligations by taxing US citizens.

The above being apparently thought of as defending the idea that the Social Security Trust Fund is actually an asset that can be used to fund the retirement benefits of the Baby Boomers when payroll taxes fall short of benefits promised.

However, the Academy followed the exchanges that ensued with increasing amusement, as it slowly began to dawn on the person who made the above defense that he had admitted exactly the opposite of what he first thought:

"The point is that the notes are not assets. They aren't"

And the point is that, nor could they be.

Further amusement being provided by other of the usual suspects in the discussion, on whom it still has not dawned what they are reading.

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