The time is now

Writing in Opinion Journal, Brendan Miniter warns that Republicans will pay a political price down the road if they abandon their principles now. From “Worse Than No Reform”:

House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer dropped by our offices recently to talk about, among other things, Social Security. This was no dry, by-the-numbers discussion. Mr. Hoyer clearly feels passionate about the issue and fully understands that what's at stake is not how large grandma's check will be, but how the welfare state will be organized. In the process of making his arguments, he unwittingly demonstrated that the claim that Democrats have no reform ideas is flat wrong. By the end of the meeting it was clear that if Republicans fail to pass Social Security reform this year, they will deserve to lose control of Congress and perhaps even the presidency.

I want a vote one way or another; let every member of Congress stand up and be counted on Social Security reform. Then, in ten or thirteen years when entitlement spending starts to crowd out all other government functions, Americans can look back and see which party wanted to tackle the problem and which party chose to act irresponsibly for temporary political gain.

Extra: Don Luskin adds his two cents.