Surprise: On Social Security Dems Govern by Polls

April 18, 2005

The Contra Costa Times, via Free Republic is reporting that House Democrats have decided that they won’t emphasize that they will not come to the table on Social Security until President Bush drops his plan for private accounts. Dems have changed their tactics because they “learned from focus groups that people frown on the lawmakers for being obstinate.”

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said, “”I’m happy, we’re happy, to talk to the president about Social Security if privatization is taken off the table, period.” And Reid’s fellow Democrats say they oppose private accounts because they would break a social contract by shifting Social Security from a government-guaranteed benefit to a personal investment subject to the risks of the market.

But the dirty little secret is that their predecessors broke the “social contract” the second it was made by never establishing a segregated trust fund for the monies and thereby permitting Congress to raid the funds at any time, which they have, gluttonously and consistently. Frankly, it’s nauseating hearing these guys talking about Social Security as if it were some kind of sacred fund, when it is nothing but I.O.U.’s which will eventually — if no remedial action is taken, drain the federal treasury.

As usual, no plan is forthcoming from the naysayers, just demagogic, populist fear-mongering to scare the people out of meaningful reform.

In the end, though, it doesn’t matter what Harry Reid and his cronies say. Whether they pretend private accounts are on the table for the time being or not, they have made it clear that they will oppose them, categorically. This is no secret. The only thing that’s changed is that they are going to try to hoodwink the people into thinking that they might consider the option when they’ve made clear they will not. Their dis ingenuousness drips from the pages of the Contra Costa Times. Beyond that, these people are still acting like they hold all the cards, like they are in the majority. When are our guys going to come together and defeat these obstructors?

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