September 5, 2006
DEMOCRATS WORST NIGHTMARE:
Bush looking to revive Social Security, tax reform (ROBERT NOVAK, September 3, 2006, Chicago SUN-TIMES)
President George W. Bush, in private conversation, is talking about trying to revive his tax and Social Security reform proposals after the 2006 elections.Bush emphasized those two issues after his 2004 re-election victory, but neither made progress. He campaigned nationwide in 2005 for Social Security personal accounts but never proposed a specific bill. His tax reform did not get beyond recommendations of a presidential commission.
Irrespective of his original intentions, the Republican landslide in '94 put Bill Clinton in a position where he was forced to agree to politically popular Welfare Reform. If the Democrats were to win in this midterm -- which remains unlikely and falling gas prices may soon make an impossibility -- they'd be in the devastating position of having to pass popular legislation like SS Reform and tax simplification, which the President would gladly sign and properly take credit for, or else do nothing and hand John McCain and the GOP the stick with which to thrash them. It's a no-win situation. Posted by Orrin Judd at September 5, 2006 11:28 AM
I know of but one human being on the face of the Earth who holds that the '94 election was other than a shipwreck for the Democrat party.
Posted by: Lou Gots at September 5, 2006 12:03 PM
More power to him if it he actually goes through with it.
Posted by: mc at September 5, 2006 12:16 PMNo, no, the mortgage moms will vote dem cos they'll be able to sell their houses.
Posted by: Sandy P at September 5, 2006 12:20 PMIt'll be option number 2, because there is no way to avoid a Dem filibuster. Unless, perhaps, the O'Neill proposal is the one put forward. That would be so popular that even the Dems might do what their constituency want rather than vote no for spite's sake.
Posted by: Patrick H at September 5, 2006 12:32 PM