RAMMING CONGRESS, FEELING GOOD ABOUT IT
The Paulson plan, impossibly "thin", expensive, and full of eye-popping "trust me", is vintage Bush.
The GOP will likely ram it through Congress, because Congressman are concerned about their upcoming adjournment (good grief) and likely to be seduced by how nice they are (wasn't Rumsfeld charming when he was promising to get $10 billion out of the Pentagon's budget, too?).
The Administration's effort to pressure legislators will only get stronger. Of course, there is a false trade off being peddled, that this is the only plan and that all alternatives are worse. There are other options, more Democratic options.
WITHER SOCIAL SECURITY
This may well be the dry run for what will happen for social security.
Some day down the road, possibly, the markets will "seize" or collapse, because the Treasury cannot fund the liabilities at one auction.
The GOP's Treasury Secretary will come up to the Hill and tell legislators that they have to cut all Social Security benefits, because the "alternative" is further erosion and "meltdown".
The Bush Administration has spent more of the current social security tax ("raided social security") than has any other President, by a long stretch. It is as if they are deliberately heading the ship for a wreck, to look something like this week's Paulson three-pager...
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
GOP Executes Dry-Run for Social Security Default "Plan"
