Cause for Concern

There has been speculation around the blogosphere that some Democrats might actually try to help the Bush White House pass its Social Security privatization scheme. While I initially dismissed this concern as out of hand, my subsequent research into the situation now has me worried.

Check out this LA Times article from 2000 - it is important on a broad level, and also specifically on Social Security:

"DLC leaders such as Breaux and Will Marshall, the Progressive Policy Institute's president, say it's a mistake to transfer trillions of general revenue dollars into Social Security after 2011, as Clinton and Gore are proposing, without first restructuring the program. That's Bush's position too. He and the DLC both want to partially privatize Social Security by diverting part of the payroll tax into individual accounts that workers could invest in the stock market for their own retirement."

Also, see this piece by Robert Dreyfuss in The Nation from 1999. He specifically notes the DLC's work with Wall Street firms on privatization schemes.

I'm not quite sure where the DLC and other "centrist" organizations are right now on Social Security privatization - and if they've renounced privatization, that's a good thing. But if they are still pushing this position, it is a problem. First and foremost, this line of reasoning undercuts the argument that Social Security does not need to be radically changed and privatized because there is a huge crisis. The fact is, there isn't a major crisis, and the system can be fixed with a more rational plan - and Democrats need to make that clear to the public.

Secondly, if Democrat-affiliated groups help justify private accounts - even if their proposals are more responsible than Bush's - they will create a rationale for "centrists" to capitulate when the Bush proposal comes to a vote (see the end of my last post for more on how watering down the party's message creates an environment for capitulation). If there are too many Democratic defections, ultimately the Bush privatization scheme will pass. And that would be a real tragedy.