Ryan-Sununu to the Rescue

Three months after his State of the Union address in which he boldly proclaimed the solution to Social Security's actuarial doom, President Bush is still loathe to offer any specifics, being obsessed with, and consequently bogged down in, "reaching out" to the Democrat minority to "encourage" them to "participate in the process" that they have no interest in or intention of doing anything but obstructing. This daffy bipartisanist fetish has left the White House wide open to be submarined by any opposition proposal that pretends to bow & curtsey to private accounts while really neutralizing them for good as a reform option.

For a change, two members of Congress have come to Dubya's rescue.

WASHINGTON, DC – April 20 – Today, the Free Enterprise Fund applauded Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senator John Sununu (R-NH) for introducing the Ryan-Sununu social security reform bill. The revolutionary bill creates large personal retirement accounts and a real future for American workers.

The Ryan Sununu bill demonstrates conclusively that properly designed personal retirement accounts makes Social Security permanently solvent without having to raise taxes, cut future benefits or increase the retirement age,” said Lawrence Hunter, vice president and chief economist for the Free Enterprise Fund.

“The Ryan-Sununu bill would empower all workers to build real wealth through large personal accounts that workers own and control, with an iron-clad guarantee that no workers can do worse than they would without reform,” said Phil Kerpen, policy director for the Free Enterprise Fund. The bill's large personal accounts and spending discipline achieve permanent solvency without tax hikes or benefit cuts. This is a bill that works and should be embraced by GOP leadership and the White House.”

The good burghers at Human Events are ecstatic as well.

Caveat #1: this same bill was introduced by the same two co-sponsors last summer, but the Bush White House ignored it.

However, the President was "kinda busy" at the time. And really, this is a classic Bush "strategery" from his Texas gubernatorial days: toss out a general theme on an issue, let the other side piss themselves, then an ally introduces a close approximation of his actual proposal, and he runs with it.

Caveat #2: He's never used this tactic as president, which gave us a voucherless education bill written by Teddy Kennedy and a prescription drug boondoggle bereft of Medical Savings Accounts.

But there's no reason for Social Security reform to make a trifecta.

And no excuse.

As the Human Events headline says, "Here's your plan, Mr. President."

And as my corollary says, "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth."

[Hat tip: Blogs for Bush]