Demagogue

An editorial in today's Washington Post:

"The crisis is now," President Bush says of Social Security. Both aspects of that declaration are incorrect; both also contain nuggets of truth. Social Security faces a long-term deficit that is significant, if not nearly as staggering as the accompanying shortfall in Medicare.

... This is less a crisis than a problem -- one that may be more easily solved on paper than in the real world ... Mr. Bush isn't the first to deploy the "c" word to describe Social Security's predicament. "This fiscal crisis in Social Security affects every generation," President Bill Clinton warned in 1998.

In challenging Bush's view that "[t]he crisis is now," The Post has some interesting company -- Republican leaders in Congress.

Republicans' official document for promoting their vision of Social Security reform includes an introductory letter co-signed by the chairs of the House and Senate Republican Conferences. In the letter, Senator Rick Santorum and U.S. Rep. Deborah Pryce write:

One of the tests of leadership is to confront problems before they become a crisis." (emphasis added)

Sidebar: Santorum's fingerprints on this pro-private accounts letter should be filed away by Pennsylvania Democrats as they begin to assemble their case against Santorum -- should he run for re-election to the Senate in 20008.

The fact that he is an ultra-conservative representing a "blue" state should make him a logical target of Dems two election cycles from now.

There are plenty of ideological reasons to target Santorum in '08 -- for example, his bigotry toward gay people and his love-it-or-leave-it attitude toward expressions of dissent. And, last but not least, for someone who espouses the gospel of self-reliance, Santorum sure has been a burden to Pennsylvania taxpayers.