House and Senate GOP Look For Exit Strategy On Social Security

by Steve Soto

The Bush strategy on Social Security has seemingly finally hit the wall. Neither the House nor the Senate GOP leadership wants to move ahead with a bill unless the other moves ahead first. Denny Hastert doesn’t want his members to go on record with a roll call vote in advance of next year’s midterms on a bill that isn’t going anywhere. And Senator Charles Grassley can’t get a bill out of his committee with GOP support unless it has private accounts because the far right conservatives are demanding that.

Yet Grassley and Frist know that there aren’t the GOP votes on the Senate floor to pass a bill with private accounts. The White House has decided they can’t abandon private accounts because it will undermine the GOP senators up for reelection next year who have already stepped out on that ledge, like Little Ricky Santorum. So Rove and Bush have decided to attack Democrats for obstructing Bush’s unpopular proposals, even as Lindsey Graham admits for the first time that there may not be a bipartisan fix to Social Security while Bush is president, and that Democrats will not pay a price for saying “no”.

All while Democrats like Rahm Emmanuel get to crow that after seeing Bush for five years ignore bipartisanship and backstab those few who did work with him, Bush now pleads for Democratic support and then returns to form and bashes them for obstructionism.

Great job Turdblossom. Your new plan is for your boss to downplay Social Security and instead talk about Iraq and the economy, two areas where your ideology gives you few options. Plus, a focus on these issues provides no real way to fire up your base for next year, without resorting to more American Taliban issues that the public is already blasting Congress for spending too much time on.

In other words Karl, you have already issued the death warrant to the GOP incumbents next year.