Soc. Sec: The Republican's Rope?

[cmutt]

Is social security the rope that the Republican's will use to hang themselves? Social Security is one of the so-called 'third-rails' of politics: it's a death sentance for the politicians that touch it. Bush is willing to pursue it because he doesn't have anything to lose -- he'll be out of office in 4 years, regardless of any policy he pursues today. But what of the house and senate members?

Assuming a fair electoral process (a big if nowadays), can the Dem's leverage this into a majority in either bodies next election? Whether the social security makeover suceeds or not, I'd have to assume that the Dem's (assuming Democratic competancy, another big if) would at least be able to leverage some of this to their advantage.

Your thoughts?

[Spinzonner]

1. Only if the result is not just 'No'

But 'Hell No'

[Florida_Geek]

2. I think this is a BIG mistake by Rove

the house Repugs want and have gotten a lot of the Gray Hair vote. They do not want to lose them.....

Just IMHO

[LisaLynne]

3. I don't know ...

'They' have been working for a long time to get younger people to assume that SocSec isn't going to be there for them. I really don't have much of a sense of how well it's worked, but if it has, younger people (and I mean even probably the over 40 crowd, although I'm really not sure about this -- totally just my personal impression) will just let it slide. I know a lot of people who are convinced that their personal investments will keep them safe, fed, and medicated for the rest of their lives when in actuality they are not going to have nearly enough money.

Other more short-sighted people just want the money now to buy a new stereo. So ... I don't know.

[Mist]

4. I've been watching a panel discussion on Social Security on C-SPAN

this morning. What was repeated over and over is that *'s "plan" is complicated, expensive, and there's no "crisis" in social security anyway. I think that's how the Soc.Sec. discussion of *'s "plan" should be framed: Complicated and expensive "plan" to fix something that ain't broke! Another good point the panel made was that a lot of the expense of *'s "plan" would go to hiring more people to administer it. The public in general doesn't like the idea of swelling the gov't payroll.