I’m disappointed, but not surprised, to read in the Washington Post that President Obama has decided against any changes to restrain Social Security spending. He’ll still probably subject us to pious and insincere rhetoric about fighting red ink in tonight’s State-of-the-Union address, but it is very revealing that the President is rejecting even the recommendations of his hand-picked Commission.
More than two months after his deficit commission first laid out a plan for reining in the national debt, President Obama has yet to embrace any of its controversial provisions – and he is unlikely to break that silence Tuesday night. …the president’s decision not to lay out his own vision for reducing the national debt has infuriated balanced-budget advocates, who fear that a bipartisan consensus for action fostered last month by Obama’s commission could wither without presidential leadership. …Liberals…applauded the decision, arguing that Social Security cuts are neither necessary to reduce current deficits nor a wise move politically.
I won’t be surprised, though, if Obama proposes in his budget to increase the Social Security payroll tax burden. That’s an idea he endorsed during the 2008 campaign.
The right approach, by the way, is not just cutting benefits, but rather letting younger workers shift their payroll taxes into personal retirement accounts, as explained in this video that was released earlier this month.
But the President’s reluctance to touch Social Security is only part of the story. The White House actually intends to push for more government spending. Only they won’t phrase it that way. The President will claim the new spending is an “investment.” But Senator Durbin of Illinois committed a gaffe and admitted this is just a repeat of the failed stimulus.
“It’s part of a stimulus. but we’re sensitive to the deficit,” Durbin said on “Fox News Sunday” when asked by host Chris Wallace about the president’s expected plans to call for more spending for infrastructure, education, research in his State of the Union address Tuesday night to a joint session of Congress.
I’m not sure why people are talking about a new, centrist-oriented Obama. Recycling big-government proposals is hardly a sign of fiscal restraint. And ducking-and-running on entitlements hardly seems to indicate a new era of fiscal responsibility.
