The Sad Predictability of Harry Reid

As Democratic Senate Leader, Harry Reid is picking up where Tom Daschle left off. His editorial in the USA Today on the Social Security problem makes it clear how dull and uninspiring the Democrats are when it comes to innovative ideas. It also shows that the Democratic leader is either dishonest or just plain dumb. Reid says about Bush's proposals,

"the Republican privatization plan would force benefit cuts of one-third or more."

Lie: I think Reid is talking about the idea to reindex benefits to costs rather than wages, but this has nothing to do with individual accounts.

"Those who do establish an account would be hit twice, as their guaranteed benefits would be subject to a steep 'privatization tax' that could wipe out most, or even all, of the value of their account."

Lie: "Privatization tax?" Nice lingo, but this is over the top; there is no such thing, but the attempt to label Republicans as the "real" taxers is interesting.

"The GOP plan also involves saddling our children with trillions of dollars in additional debt. Much of that debt would be borrowed from foreign countries like China and Japan."

Lie: I guess Reid doesn't count today's $10 trillion+ unfunded liabilities as debt...I wonder what it is, in his mind. Sorry, Harry but relabeling the term "debt" doesn't increase the amount. (For good measure, he throws in China and Japan as an ethnic jab to scare off any isolationists.)

So there you have all his ideas in one nice editorial: no benefit cuts of any sort, no individual accounts, and he rules out anything other than full government control over tax revenue. What's left? You guessed it - NEW tax increases! And who says Democrats are devoid of creative ideas?