Bush’s social security gambit in last night’s state of the union address appears to have gone over like the proverbial lead balloon. According to ABC News, numerous Republicans are now loudly proclaiming their disappointment in the President’s total failure to come to grips with the gaping hole that his plan to allow workers to divert 2/3 of their payroll tax to "private personal accounts" will put in social security’s finances. And they’re freaked that an integral part of the Bush plan appears to be a whopping reduction in benefits — basically, a lot of the terrific investment results from your "personal account" will end up decreasing dollar-for-dollar the amount that the social security system pays you (UPDATE: the NYT’s Paul Krugman has more on this point here). You didn’t hear that one in the speech last night!
One Republican described his colleagues as "panic-stricken." The Republicans have evidently noticed that privatizing social security doesn’t actually fix the long-term financial problem — in fact, it makes it worse — and that Bush hasn’t explained what he plans to do about that problem. They’ve also noticed that these facts are not lost on the American people. And so the Republicans are really, really scared. There’s more social security gossip at ABC’s "The Note."
