SUPREMELY AWKWARD:

Bush as Robin Hood (JOHN TIERNEY, 4/30/05, NY Times)

Democrats have good reason to be aghast at President Bush's new proposal for Social Security. Someone has finally called their bluff.

They tried yesterday to portray him as just another cruel, rich Republican for suggesting any cuts in future benefits, but that's not what the prime-time audience saw on Thursday night. By proposing to shore up the system while protecting low-income workers, Mr. Bush raised a supremely awkward question for Democrats: which party really cares about the poor? [...]

As a poverty-fighting program, Social Security is woefully inefficient because most of the money goes to people who aren't poor. It would take just 20 percent of what Social Security dispenses to move every elderly American out of poverty, according to June O'Neill, the former director of the Congressional Budget Office.

C'mon, Democrats can hardly be expected to acknowledge that their very existence requires that the maximum number of people possible be dependent on government.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 30, 2005 10:42 AM