Asymmetrical Information

Okay, I just noticed this

Okay, I just noticed this post on Social Security and Democratic Strategy from Ipse Dixit, but it's a goodie, so I'm posting it. It covers the suicidal plans the Dems are making in a desperate attempt to hold the Senate:

What's perhaps even more amazing is that their budget - which they presumably plan to be the groundwork for a claim that they're the fiscally responsible ones - predicts a higher deficit than the one about to be passed by the GOP-controlled House. It's true, yes, that it's smaller than the one in the President's budget, but the two "GOP" versions fully fund the President's military spending request; Conrad's diverts some of it to social spending. Why they think that will go over with the electorate is quite a mystery, I must say.

Conrad's right, of course. Securing the future of Social Security is a vital test of the current Congress' mettle. And, so long as Tom Daschle is Senate Plurality Leader, they will fail it miserably. Their only hope of long-term survival as a party is to keep as many Americans as possible on the public teat. So they will demagogue Social Security right up to the day (now likely to arrive before I am eligible to retire) that the United States government defaults on its promises.

Perhaps the saddest non-legacy of the Clinton Administration is that he could have secured himself a permanent legacy, a place in the pantheon of greats so strong that no number of scandals could ever have dislodged him, if only he had had the courage to reform Social Security in the manner proposed by President Bush. Just as, in the words of the ancient Vulcan proverb, "only Nixon could go to China", so Bubba could have privatized Social Security. He was largely successful pulling his party - kicking and screaming - up to a level of sustainable credibility on such things as the economy and crime; he could have done the same for entitlements.