There’s an old myth, popular in business circles, that the Chinese character for “crisis” combines the characters for “danger” and “opportunity.” It doesn’t. But the Bush administration is certainly thinking that way, judging from this little tidbit in CongressDaily today: “[White House spokesman Trent] Duffy asserted that the vast spending that would be required to address the hurricane’s impact adds to the need to change Social Security, which threatens to strain the budget in coming years.” Ah yes, despite the fact that Social Security “reform” would add trillions to the deficit in the short term, at a time when Katrina will already cost the federal government $100 billion or more, the time for privatization is now, obviously, in the wake of disaster. Um, no.
