Why so glum? Get happy!

Boy, reading the WashPost this morning, you’d think that the effort to reform Social Security is dead on arrival:

That a politician as closely allied to the White House as [Senator Bill] Frist would even raise the possibility of putting off the [reform] proposal until next year -- possibly dooming it -- was an unexpected blow to the administration.

Oh no! The WashPost WH Briefing further defined it as a “Losing Fight?” while Republican leaders in the House sounded downright defensive. Mickey Kaus deadpanned: “It may be too early to declare Bush's plan dead, but it's not too early to stop declaring it's too early to declare Bush's plan dead.” Meanwhile, the Minuteman says: “Mostly dead is partly alive.”

To borrow a line from Mark Twain, news of reform’s death is greatly exaggerated. Congress is still barely back in session after the winter break, the inauguration, and whatever vacation they had last week. There have been no formal proposals put before either the House or the Senate. The only “debates” on the issue have been in front of partisan audiences on both sides of the issue. Somewhere down the road, there will be a bill in Congress, debate and many clashes on “Meet the Press.”

All of this benefits the reform effort because the magnitude of the entitlement problem will be made clear, forcing the Democrats into two positions, both untenable. Either they must declare there is no problem or that there is a problem; this latter position requires them to take a stand on a solution. Americans simply will not tolerate a party that sits on its collective hands while criticizing reasonable reforms to insure the long-term solvency of Social Security.

But what if Democrats are successful in filibustering or otherwise sinking reform? It would be a Pyrrhic victory at best because in either 2008, or 2018, or 2042 (depending on how you define the predicament we’re in) America will be square-face with a runaway entitlement problem that will require drastic action including massive tax increases and benefit cuts. When the U.S. government is forced into that corner, the wisdom of “fixing the roof while the sun shines” will be all too obvious.

Extra - Patrick Ruffini and I are on the same wavelength: “Victory is in reach”