The political press, and websites like this one, have been obsessing for weeks over the politics of privatizing Social Security. I think we may all have missed the single key development: Lindsey Graham has switched sides.
Graham was always the center of the action. A champion of privatization, he’s been holding closed-door meetings with moderate Democrats in the hopes of forging a compromise. The main worry of the pro-Social Security crowd all along has been that Graham would co-opt the Democrats into some form of privatization.
That’s why what Graham told the Washington Post last week is so crucial. In the interview, he called private accounts a “sideshow.” There was also this:
“Let’s have a conversation along these lines: Let’s make a commitment to permanently find solvency, and see where we go,” he said. “Set the accounts aside for a moment. Let’s see if we can find solvency.”
That position is known as “the Democratic position.” Democrats are willing to discuss Social Security’s solvency, but not privatization. In the same article, Treasury Secretary John Snow said, “the administration is saying that the solvency issue, if it’s going to be dealt with in a way that’s fair to younger people, has to make available to them this opportunity to build a nest egg through the personal accounts.” Which is in keeping with the conservative line. For privatizers, solvency is the pretext for transforming Social Security from social insurance into a system where individuals take care of themselves. If they address solvency withot adding private accounts, they lose their pretext.
And yesterday, Graham voted with the Democrats on a sense of the Senate resolution rejecting large benefit cuts or increases in the national debt.
So how or why did Graham switch sides? My guess is this. Graham is an earnest guy, and he sat down with Democrats thinking he could win them over to his point of view. But as they hashed it out, and they brought up the inherent problems with establishing private accounts, he instead came around to their point of view. Instead of Graham coopting the Democrats, the Democrats coopted Graham.
Anyway, that’s my theory.
