Reply #10: "Taken to its logical conclusion"

[zipplewrath]

This type of declaration or headline is based upon the concept of "...if taken to its logical conclusion". In the stated example, it's pretty hard to make any significant reductions in our future debts as influenced by these programs if one doesn't actually cut the benefits that those programs provide. Furthermore, these types of commissions are created specifically to make politically unpopular changes and cuts, and in a format much as is being lain out here. They will be presented and voted upon as relatively unalterable packages.

Now, one can argue about whether the headline actually represents the "logical conclusion". And it is my problem with this type of advocacy technique. It is presented more as an underlying assumption, instead of a stated "logical conclusion" which can then be debated or evaluated. This type of argument is one favored by most of the commentator/entertainers on TV and radio these days. "McCain votes to limit free speech" instead of "McCain votes for his own campaign finance reform bill".

As for the specific example, you can complain about the technique, and I understand the observation, but in reality this is the exact reason the commission is being formed. It is effectively the same as the Base Closure Committee, if your town has been on the receiving end of one of their actions, a commission like this with authority over Medicare and SS should scare the heck out of you.