Yes, I'm going to give credit to someone else, but not to the progressives

[Enrique]

Imo, Harry Reid was the biggest force stopping Bush from privatizing Social Security in 2005, and he's still fighting. Reid is no progressive.

Campaign for America's Future, Crooks and Liars, and AmericaBlog all noticed Reid's performance on Meet the Press recently, which imo contradicted Obama's previous interview with NPR. Obama was asked about the deficit, he answered by talking about Social Security. Reid complains about people who do just that.


http://www.americablog.com/2011/01/harry-reid-defends-social-security-to.html#

(...)

Harry Reid did a great job recently of defending Social Security on Meet the Press. As you watch, note Reid's argument and tone. But don't ignore David Gregory — listen to his tone.

So two points. First, our nice president is trying to figure out whether to attack Social Security (in the nice way, of course) during his State of the Union speech. It looks like Reid is sending a message — Don't.

Why? Because Obama will sink the Democrats in Congress if he does. For Reid, who barely survived his own recent Teabag attack, that's a decent reason.

(You can make the same case to your own congress-type, by the way; just pick up the phone.)

Second, does David Gregory sound like a questioner, or an eager advocate for the other side? To help you decide, here's a transcript of the conversation, thanks to Crooks & Liars (my emphasis):

DAVID GREGORY: Social Security-- how does it have to change? What they put on the agenda is raising the retirement age, maybe means testing benefits. Is it time for Social Security to fundamentally change if you're gonna deal with the debt problem?
HARRY REID: One of the things that always troubles me is when we start talking about the debt, the first thing people do is run to Social Security. Social Security is a program that works. And it's going to be-- it's fully funded for the next forty years. Stop picking on Social Security. There're a lotta places--
DAVID GREGORY: Senator are you really saying --
HARRY REID: --where you can go to save money.
DAVID GREGORY:-- the arithmetic on Social Security works?
HARRY REID: I'm saying the arithmetic in Social Security works. I have no doubt it does.
DAVID GREGORY: It's not in crisis?
HARRY REID: No, it's not in crisis. This is-- this is-- this is something that's perpetuated by people who don't like government. Social Security is fine. Are there things we can do to improve Social Security? Of course.
DAVID GREGORY: Means testing. Raising the retirement age--do you agree with either of those?
HARRY REID: --I'm not going to go to with any of those backdoor methods- you know, to whack Social Security recipients. I'm not going to do that. We have a lot of things we can do with-- this debt. It's a problem. But one of the places where I'm not going to be part of picking on is Social Security.

[xchrom]

1. we will see.

'So two points. First, our nice president is trying to figure out whether to attack Social Security (in the nice way, of course) during his State of the Union speech. It looks like Reid is sending a message — Don't.'

[RandomThoughts]

2. I like Reid.

Even though there is a tendency to make me not like him, I really like him.

Not sure why, not even sure if he is as I think he is. But something about him I like, even though it seems like I shouldn't at the exact same time.

So :shrug:

I give him a pass, sort of like Pelosi, maybe he is right maybe he is wrong, but I like them both. :shrug: Maybe I am fool, if so thats ok.

[still_one]

3. All they have to do is raise the cap on Social Security, why isn't that brought up? /nt

[DCKit]

4. Or end the illegal wars, but that topic is also verboten. nt

[TheWraith]

5. What a stack of shit.

Bashing Reid--"not a progressive"? Maybe not by the "no true Scotsman" standards applied by FireDogLake and some of the Daily Kos people, but by any reasoned and informed standard, Reid has been solidly on our side. Yes, he's not as rough and tumble a guy as we might like, but he's hamstrung by the Senate rules, and still managed to shepherd through a lot of the President's agenda.

Bashing Obama--repeating the mantra that he wants to destroy Social Security and starve old people to death or work them in sweatshops, a claim that would be laughable if it weren't for the number of people who are repeating it as gospel truth, despite the total lack of any sane evidence.

And underestimating the public--Bush's plan for Social Security went away because everyone could read the writing on the wall: that such a proposal was an absolute non-starter with the public at large, and to support it would have been as crazy-ass suicidal as voting to ban guns, booze, and fast cars.

[Enrique]

7. you seem to think progressive means 'good'

I don't. When I say Reid isn't a progressive, I don't mean he's a bad person, I mean he holds political positions that put him among the more conservative democrats.

Regarding Social Security, plenty of "suicidal" things get passed, like the Iraq War Resolution, like NAFTA, like Welfare Reform. We can't just sit around saying, "oh, that will never happen".

[pacalo]

6. What really burns me is that Bush never said ONE WORD about decreasing the deficit.

If he did, I didn't hear it. This deficit is HIS baby brat that the Democrats are having to discipline. The Democrats are on the hot seat having to explain the best ways to prevent that brat from eating us out of house & home.

Where was the pressure on George Bush? He seems to have lived his entire life on free rides.