That Darn Cat

At long last, congressional tool Tom DeLay has let the Social Security cat out of the bag [emphasis mine]:

The AARP, which claims 35 million members age 50 and over, is "against a solution that hasn't been written yet," said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay after a closed-door meeting with the GOP rank and file.

You don't say. So why exactly has Bush been engaging in an extended cross-country leg-humping tour for the better part of the last two months? To butter up the Stepford crowds they cherry-pick for him? Hell, he could ask them to sacrifice their first-born on the driveway and they'd at least consider it.

At least now we know why this was never brought up, you know, during the campaign.

DeLay and Speaker Dennis Hastert also criticized congressional Democrats, who are virtually united in opposition to Bush's plans. "The party of no," Hastert called them.

Better "the party of no" than "the party of no plan". Coming from someone who looks like he's never said "no" to an all-you-can-eat buffet, that's an interesting way to put it.

As he has before, Greenspan endorsed a key element of Bush's plans for Social Security, a proposal that would allow workers to set aside a portion of their payroll taxes to be invested on their own. But he stressed that much more needed to be done to put the giant retirement program and Medicare, which he said faced even more severe financial strains, on a more sound footing.

Another truth uttered sotto voce there, as all truths must be with these people: Medicare is facing a bigger and more immediate crisis than Social Security. The fix-it that was bum-rushed through last year is going to cost two to three times the original bullshit number that was floated. So roughly $1.2 trillion, rather than "only" $450 billion. And the Republicans are supposed to be the party of fiscal responsibility here? This is your money, folks, so you better start following it.

Bush and congressional Republicans have consistently sought to coax Democrats into negotiations on Social Security. Democrats have just as insistently resisted, arguing that since Republicans control the White House and both houses of Congress, they must first present a comprehensive Social Security proposal of their own.

Yeah, people are funny that way. You call them out, insult them constantly, talk to them like they're stupid, and they have the goddamned nerve to actually want to take a look at what you're so furiously insisting they must sign on to. Really, the utter perfidiousness displayed by the Demoncrats is one for the books. Don't they understand the whole "faith-based" deal?

Bush is to travel to six states over the next two weeks, and many more later as he tries to build public support for a Social Security overhaul.

It is not an "overhaul", so much as an engine swap -- or an outright elimination. Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo has done yeoman's work on this subject, including exposing the leaked memo that featured one of the minions licking his chops at the prospect of actually carrying through the conservatives' wet dream -- eliminating that commie New Deal that bastard "Rosenfeld" put in place. It's all a big conspiracy, you know.

Younger Americans would be allowed to invest a portion of their payroll taxes on their own. In exchange they would receive a lower government benefit than they are now guaranteed, on the assumption that the proceeds of their investments would make up the difference. In addition, though, even younger voters who choose not to establish personal accounts would receive a reduced government benefit under Bush's plan, according to GOP congresisonal officials who have been briefed on the plan.

This deal just gets better and better, doesn't it? I'm sure it'll be a real peach whenever they actually get around to writing the plan and sharing it with us retards, who apparently are ignorant of financial jargon and how billions there are in a trillion (actual talking points from the GOP Social Security Memo PDF).

I am torn on this. On the one hand, I absolutely love watching Bush waste time and energy and political capital running around the country like a chicken with its head lopped off, desperately babbling his customary non-sequiturs and butchered syntax about this non-plan that won't fix a thing.

On the other hand, given what the American people have signed on to lately, clearly they'll buy any sack of magic beans Bush tries to sell them, so long as it's wrapped in the right catch-phrase. They've got 18 months to pull something out of their asses, and you can bet that every GOP ass-spelunker in the house is working 24-7 on this. Because if they can pull it off, it doesn't just mean the end of Social Security, but the end of the Democrat Party as a viable opposition.

Now, if you're seriously considering Bush's proposal, even in the sense of "something has to be done about it", I beg to differ. Something will have to be done, but not right this second, and not in this fashion. Think about it -- what single thing has this administration been right about, in principle and especially in procedure? Do you really trust these guys to give a shit whether they do something right, even on the off chance that it was even the right thing to do?