Declare Victory on Social Security

Bill Scher at Liberal Oasis has one of the strongest strategic suggestions I've heard in years for Democrats to deal with the Social Security debate:

The main principle of the current strategy is that “There Is No Crisis,” meaning that there is no pressing need to cut a bad deal with people who can’t be trusted to protect Social Security.

A secondary argument has been that Medicare is clearly closer to crisis than Social Security and we should be talking about that instead.

That’s been said largely to sharpen the point that Social Security isn’t in crisis.

But why not take that argument to the next logical step? To be specific:

1. Declare the Social Security debate over, as the public has clearly rejected privatization and is not demanding any immediate action.

2. In turn, announce that Dems will no longer participate in any Social Security hearings on Capitol Hill, or any Social Security debates in the media.

3. At the same time, unveil a comprehensive Democratic plan (or perhaps, multiple plans) to control the skyrocketing cost of health care and to prevent the Medicare trust fund from becoming insolvent in 2020.

4. Announce a series of Democratic-led hearings on Medicare, with an open invitation for Republicans to participate if they like.

Controlling the agenda in Washington is the key to victory. Democrats have done this on a couple of fronts, from keeping the light shining on DeLay to getting out in front of a GI Bill of Rights. But this would be the boldest stroke to date. And it makes perfect sense, and is in line with core Democratic principles.

As progressives who live in the reality-based community, we can plainly see that Medicare is in far worse shape than Social Security or any other government entitlement. The President has never, NEVER elucidated a plan to deal with Medicare costs in the whole of his Presidency. The prescription drug bill passed last year was such a giveaway to Big Pharma that the Administration had to lie about the actual cost of the bill and threaten the Medicare actuary's job if he didn't go along with the scheme.

The good news is that the public already recognizes the problem with the US health care system, far more than it does with Social Security. This would not be a hard sell to the public, and would show that the Democrats are the party that cares about the issues facing ordinary Americans. Furthermore, it forces the Republicans to answer questions for which they have none. Sure, they'll play the "Democrats are just trying to change the subject on Social Security because they have no ideas" card (which is so interesting since the President's proposal last week was written by a Democrat), but the way the modern media works they'll have to answer some health care questions to balance the debate. And then they're playing on Democratic turf, where they don't want to be, and they'll look as out of touch on health care as they do on Social Security.

Democrats are too often derided for being bereft of new ideas and for not having core principles. This gambit would go a long way to counteracting that.

p.s. The Talent Show has more good thoughts on this.