The Bush team seems to have misjudged the way the Democrats would respond to the Social Security issue. Based on past history, Bush throws out an idea, like tax cuts or education or gay marriage, and the Democrats respond with a series of policy proposals. Then, they are in the debate with him and he gets most of what he wants.
Not this time. On Social Security, the Democrats are actually being strategic by not proposing anything. That response has the White House in a tizzy. They don't know how to respond.
Yesterday, in Iowa, Bush practically begged the Democrats to act like they used to:
President Bush suggested Wednesday that lawmakers who oppose his proposal for a Social Security overhaul could face political problems as a result.The problem he has is that he is hanging out there all by himself on this one. And, the only one paying a political price is Bush. This issue, along with Schiavo, is causing his approval numbers to tank. Even the Reverend Moon's paper had to acknowledge as much.
"To answer the question of the skeptics, we do have a serious problem," Bush said in an interview aired on WMT AM radio here and on WHO NewsRadio in Des Moines. Bush conducted the interview at a local diner, the Spring House Family Restaurant. "Now is the time to fix it, and I think there is a political price for not getting involved in the process."
Bush added: "I think there is a political price for saying, `It's not a problem, I'm going to stay away from the table.'"
In his Social Security travels, Bush has aimed to emphasize the positive and appear the model of bipartisanship - promising Democrats there will be no political retribution for bringing forward any idea to fix the system and arguing that the matter is too important to be the subject of partisan bickering.
There really is no reason for the Democrats to play with Bush on this. Besides, when they do, he only screws them anyway.
