The fat-walleted president George W. Bush embarked on a two-day road trip with his staff and advisors to promote a major revamp of the Social Security system, with stops in many western states to gather Republican and Democrat support for his latest plan: Solving the future Social Security problems with magic. With magic, Bush tells us, the problem of supporting a large non-working retired community with a small workforce paying taxes can be fixed, as a small amount of tax money is inexplicably transformed into “bunches.”
The plan, first outlined in the State of the Union address, involves heavy investing in magic research, most specifically, figuring out how stage magicians can make a quarter become a dollar coin. Ideally, according to the president, the basic “science” of magic can be expanded until larger sums, such as billions of dollars, are doubled into money to preserve future Social Security benefits. The president’s latest proposal replaces less feasible plans, such as just printing more money until we have all we need, or investing in “reliable” stocks and bonds.
“I’m not sure if magic really can be a viable solution to supporting Social Security benefits,” said White House critic Rep. Hud Coker (D-Arkansas), “but at least he’s not talking that ‘privatization’ bullshit anymore.”
Bush took the lead in the Social Security argument by describing the system as being “in crisis” during his State of the Union speech, and then pushed the agenda further by loading into a van with his staff Friday for a support-building “road trip” to key states. On Friday, the president made stops at auditoriums and town halls, as well as “piss breaks” at gas stations and fast food restaurants, to speak on his hopes for magic as a resolution to the Social Security dilemma future generations will likely face.
“When the workforce is smaller than the community of retirees it supports, it’s a big math problem,” said the president, while eating from a small bag of Cheetos as he stood by the gas pump. “I’m not very good at math problems, but I know what it means when you need more money than you have. Then I remembered a birthday party I had a couple of years ago, where a magician made twenty-five cents into a dollar. That’s what we need, I thought to myself. If this works—and let’s face it, it’s my best plan yet—it could solve more problems than just Social Security. Funding for perverted paintings and crap? Don’t worry, we’ll magicize it! And maybe you’ll finally let us build missile defense systems and bombers without all the bellyachin’.” Then an advisor reminded the president about his campaign promise to quit using the word “bellyachin’” to describe political opposition.
Many critics of the president, those knowledgeable in science and the laws of nature, bemoaned the difficulties of reproducing money through magic, but a few Democrats rallied behind the president’s plan as a bipartisan solution to a hot-button old people issue. Ken “Amazing Kenny” Rublett, an unaccredited professor at Ithaca, New York’s University of Magic & Illusion, spoke positively of the president’s plan.
“I’ve been lobbying for the government to use magic and prestidigitation to solve national problems ever since Nixon’s been president,” said Professor Amazing Kenny. “Finally, someone is listening. I don’t agree with the Iraq War and I’ve disagreed with the president’s implementation of the Patriot Act, but magic can help us in ways not yet imagined. Have someone like Impresso the Clown put on a show at Guantanamo Bay, and ask for volunteers. When he does the Mystery Box, he can make any potential terrorists disappear—he doesn’t have to bring them back. There. We’ve solved problem of due process without endangering the Constitution! Magic can solve anything!”
The cracker magician then made a ball of fire burst from his hands, at which point this reporter’s aggressive instincts kicked in and unleashed a furious ass-whipping on the man.