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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2005-02-01

On Social Security Reform

Bob Kerrey--yeah, the one who shot all his credibility to hell in the 9-11 Commission hearings--penned a piece for the OJO this morning encouraging the liberals to get involved in a substantive way in the President's push to reform Social Security.

The late Pat Moynihan used to joke when I asked him why liberals were so reluctant to consider changing Social Security so that it guaranteed wealth as well as income: "It's because they worry that wealth will turn Democrats into Republicans." Leaving aside that possible correlation, it will be a shame if liberal voices, values and ideas are not brought into the debate initiated by President Bush's Social Security reform proposal. . . However, liberals are wrong to fear that President Bush's proposal represents a threat to Social Security.

I sincerely hope they do not merely defend their proudest achievement. I hope they see that President Bush is giving them an opportunity to finally do something about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.

Not all of Kerrey's thoughts are on the money, but simply the fact that he's not shooting the reforms down is remarkable. It shows that maybe, somewhere in the Democratic Party, are people willing to look at problems and address them. And even if their conclusions are flawed, its better than sticking your head in the sand.

As Kerrey said: None of this will happen if liberals merely shout "hell no, we won't go." The best they can hope for with that strategy is to prevent reform from happening. They should feel no pride of accomplishment if that is the result.
Posted by: Michael / 2/01/2005 09:24:00 PM

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