He’s not out of the Faction yet. But he’s awfully close.
From what we’d gleaned in news reports and from his communications with constituents, Alabama’s Bud Cramer looked like he might be the president’s best bet after Rep. Allen Boyd to go along with a Social Security phase-out bill.
But an article by Shelby G. Spires in this morning’s Huntsville Times sure paints a different picture.
“I do not support (Bush’s Social Security plan) in its current form at all, and I would have to see a lot of details to convince me … There’s not enough substance to the White House’s proposal that would show how this will work.”
Cramer, says the Times, “won’t rule out working with the Bush administration on the issue, but cautioned that it would have to be a different plan.”
Further down into the piece Cramer expresses concerns about current retirees, tax and spending issues, and what the administration would do if the stock market went south. He never expresses clear opposition to a private-accounts-based phase-out plan, as such, and he’s left the door open for the president.
But he seems a lot less likely to side with the president today than he did yesterday.
