WaPo's Lori Montgomery hits on a familiar theme today: divided Dems. This time over
Social Security, where a vocal and powerful Senate leadership is saying "hands off" against those who have swallowed the austerity Kool-Aid.
Supposedly. Interestingly, the only Democrats that WaPo references aren't any elected ones, but the latest incarnation of squishy, Republican-lite "Dems," Third Way.
A growing number of Democratic lawmakers say they are willing to consider controversial measures such as raising the retirement age and reducing benefits for wealthier seniors as part of a compromise with Republicans to cut spending on the programs and stabilize them for future generations.
But senior lawmakers such as Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) and Sen. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) are lining up against them, arguing that tampering with Social Security would harm the elderly — as well as the political fortunes of Democrats hoping to maintain control of the White House and the Senate in 2012....
...And House Democrats this week signaled their intention to use Social Security as a cudgel in next year’s elections by launching an ad campaign accusing 10 GOP lawmakers in swing districts of plotting to cut the program.
None of the "growing number of Democratic lawmakers" referenced in Montgomery's piece actually go on the record with her, anonymously or otherwise. Instead we get this:
Meanwhile, Third Way, the centrist Democratic think tank, plans to release a memo Friday arguing that the deficit has emerged as an uncommonly powerful political issue and that 2012 voters will reward the party that takes bold action to restrain government spending — including overhauling Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
“In our view, Republicans are winning this fight,” the memo says, according to an advance copy provided to The Washington Post. “They are winning by taking on an issue that voters believe is serious; they are winning on candor; and they are winning by being on the side of reform. Democrats — who ran on change — are quickly becoming the status quo party on the budget.”
Third Way apparently can't read opinion polls, either, since none have ever shown a majority of Americans clamoring for cuts to Social Security, and in fact have consistently shown the opposite. For instance, WaPo's own poll from a week ago, which Montgomery appears to have missed. While it did reflect the fact that years of hammering the theme of a crisis in Social Security from the Right has worked, and a huge majority believes that, the majority don't support cutting Social Security to save it.
Third Way might want to take another look at that, and take a listen to those House Dems who run for re-election every two years and might actually have a better handle on what it takes to win as a Democrat (a hint, it helps to actually act like a Democrat).
As for WaPo and Montgomery on the facts of Social Security, Dean Baker has a concise fisking that's worth the read.