I’m not sure Washington’s seen someone take on and then take off a new appointment quite so quicky since Bobby Ray Inman.
Just yesterday, as we then informed you, Sen. Tom Carper (D) of Delaware had taken over as the new Dean of the Senate’s Fainthearted Faction. His appointment came right after the AP ran an interview with the senator in which he rather conspicuously opened the door to carved-out private accounts a la the Bush plan.
“2nd Senate Democrat warm to private accounts,” ran a typical, and to TPM disagreeable, headline for the story.
But it seems that the emphasis of the piece wasn’t quite what Carper had intended and that his heart may, at least, not be quite so faint as the AP article suggested.
This afternoon we received the following statement from the senator …
I’ve consistently said I would be open to the idea of establishing personal retirement accounts, but not if they result in an increase in our nation’s debt nor a reduction in benefits for seniors. From what I understand thus far from the president, his proposal does not meet that crucial test. I believe that our government functions best when both Republicans and Democrats work together to find solutions to common problems, and that’s why I believe it would be prudent for Congress and the president to create a truly bipartisan commission, like the one established in 1983, to find a way to strengthen and preserve our Social Security system and increase savings for young and old workers alike.
The AP had quoted Carper saying <$Ad$> that if we opt for private accounts we “should do so in a way that does not significantly increase our federal budget deficit and does not significantly cut benefits for our parents or, frankly, for our kids.”
But now he’s setting the standard much more sharply: no more debt, no benefit cuts.
Clearly, the senator still wants to remain in the Faction, since he makes clear he’s open to a private account carve-out, at least in theory. But his “crucial test”, as he now explains it, is one that, in the nature of things, simply can’t be met, or would be so improbable as to amount to an impossibility.
I, for instance, am open to buying myself a new Jaguar. As long as someone is willing to sell me one for no more than nine dollars and just as long as Mayor Bloomberg arranges for a private garage at which I can park it.
One might fairly say that my openness to this purchase is a meaningless one, given the qualifications I’ve imposed. And Carper’s “crucial test”, while admittedly not quite so improbable as mine, amounts to pretty much the same thing.
In our view, he remains fainthearted for a simple reason: why, but for some ingrained faintheartedness, not simply say he opposes carved-out private accounts when the logic of his stated position points so clearly in that direction?
But with this new information, he seems no more fainthearted than the other two remaining members of the Senate Faction — Sens. Landrieu and Nelson of Nebraska. So he’s not qualified to serve as Dean.
With the office vacant, the Senate Deanship now reverts to that marble monument in the pantheon of Faintheartedness, Rep. Allen Boyd (D) of Florida.
