Reporter's Notebook: Bush May Turn Setbacks into Assets

May 1, 2005 — -- President Bush has proven to be one of the more adept and agile politicians of the modern era. Time and again, he and his political team have shown the ability to turn potential political vulnerabilities -- think 9/11 -- into weapons deftly applied to opponents. Democrats would do well to remember that as they gloat over two of the larger political stories out here -- the fight over Social Security reform and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's ethics controversies.

Friday in Falls Church, Va., the president not only condemned opponents -- presumably Democrats -- for fighting his Social Security proposal, he promised they will be punished.

"I have a duty to put ideas on the table, and I'm putting them on the table," he said. "Those who block meaningful reform are going to be held to account in the polls."

President Bush is embracing what some call "progressive indexing" -- the lowest income recipients will see their Social Security benefits preserved, but future benefits for middle income earners and the wealthy will be reduced. By doing so, the president will be able to make the case, even if his plan fails, that he tried to address the fact that Social Security is not sustainable through the next few generations, and something needs to change.

Could voters come to see this as courage, especially if Democrats are offering no serious alternative solutions?

"All I hear from members of Congress and from people on the outside is, 'No plan,' " Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said at a meeting this week of the Senate Finance Committee, which he chairs. "Those of you that are bad-mouthing every other suggestion out there, suggest your own plans."

To Democrats slamming the president's proposed Social Security benefit cuts, Grassley pointedly observed that "doing nothing is not an option, because doing nothing is a cut in benefits. Grandpa Grassley gets Social Security, but my granddaughter, when she retires 56 years from now, if we do nothing, is gonna get this cut that you're talking about."

House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas, R-Calif., said on Friday: "What the president has done is fundamentally courageous, and what Republicans will do will be to follow the president."