IF HILLARY OR OBAMA HAD ANY IDEAS:

Dems, Bush should take "yes" for answer, start entitlement talks (Mort Kondracke, 2/20/07, Jewish World Review)

It's time for the Bush administration and Democratic Congressional leaders to stop talking about talking about entitlement reform -- and actually start talking about reform itself.

There's agreement on both sides that beginning soon, the costs of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits for the baby boom generation will put unsustainable burdens on taxpayers and the economy -- and that something must be done about it. Top administration officials including Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Office of Management and Budget Director Rob Portman and White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten all have told congressional Democrats they want to hold talks on entitlement reform "without preconditions."

A half-dozen specific proposals have been made for bipartisan negotiations on the problem. In fact, a meeting between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and President Bush was scheduled for Jan. 17 to begin work on a plan hatched by Sens. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and Judd Gregg, R-N.H.

But the meeting was postponed when House Democrats "got skittish," one insider said.

The key is going to be for Democrats to propose the same stuff the President has, but to pretend they're defying him. So the plan for SS reform will have private accounts but they'll be "outside" of SS somehow and them the Dems can make believe that they aren't privatizing FDR's legacy.

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 20, 2007 7:44 AM