Republicans ride the third rail

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

GOP members of Congress are floating watered-down versions of Bush's Social Security plan in an attempt to save the party's domestic agenda. But the Democrats aren't biting.


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By David Paul Kuhn



June 30, 2005 | WASHINGTON -- Perhaps it was President Bush's confidence, political hubris or a sincere intent to make his historical mark after winning a hard-fought second-term election. He stood there, blue suit and red tie, at his February State of the Union address and told the firmly Republican Congress that he was going to take on the so-called third rail of politics: Social Security.

Bush mentioned the pension program by name 18 times that night, arguing that the best way to ensure solvency was to partially privatize one of the most successful public-policy programs of the modern American era. It was to be his National Park Service, his New Deal, the domestic hallmark of his presidency.

Historians were to write: President Bush took on terrorism and saved Social Security.

But six months later, after more than 30 related speeches -- he's made more speeches about Social Security than the war in Iraq since his State of the Union -- after traveling to dozens of states to bully from the White House pulpit, the president's efforts have come to nil.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/06/30/social_security/index.html

[Quetzal]

1. It is "Social Insurance" not "Pension Plan"

[Boredtodeath]

2. Come on, Salon. Just say it. FAILURE. Bush is a FAILURE

See, it's easy to type.