(Dirty) Harry ReidÂ’s Line in the SandÂ…

Patrick Hynes of Ankle-Biting Pundits has a good article in Tech Central Station today about his attempt to unify opposition among his Party against the current Social Security reform ideas - private savings accounts in particular:

"The trouble with Harry and his anti-reform allies is that they have popped the victory cork too soon. They are celebrating after the first 100 meters of a marathon. To run the risk of dangerously mixing my metaphors, the two sides' approaches to this debate are rather like the ways they view the markets, which, circularly, have shaped their divergent perspectives. Reid and company watch and react to the ups and downs of the debate on a day-to-day basis, judging their gains and losses in twenty-four hour cycles. President Bush, on the other hand, is looking to retire this issue well down the road, like say, this fall. So Bush is investing his political capital at what seems like a loss, but he's really dollar-cost averaging. Bush is gobbling up a bigger share of the issue, which will pay bigger returns in the long run.

It didn't have to be this way for Democrats in Washington. Sen. Reid himself once understood the power of markets to improve Americans' retirement security. He told Fox News Channel in 1999, "Most of us have no problem taking a small amount of the Social Security proceeds and putting it into the private sector."

His like number in the House, Nancy Pelosi saw the light, too. Of Sen. Pat Moynihan's Social Security reform bill in 1998, which included personal retirement accounts, she said, "because the economy is good, maybe the heat can be turned down and people can look at this issue objectively." At the time, she said personal retirement accounts had "some appeal." But we had a different president then, didn't we?

It seems all too obvious that based on their actions and their prior positions that this "line in the sand" represents nothing more than an attempt to derail Bush's chances at a political victory - which takes their eyes off what they should be focusing on - a workable solution to benefit the American people. But then, why should they start now?

Posted by: Gary at 02:24 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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