Legal Commentary

No Touching The Third Rail

By Big Tent Democrat

The big news that emerged last night was that, despite Pete Peterson's best efforts, no pol will touch the Third Rail. Via Yglesias, Ross Douthat writes:

[Paul] Ryan’s rejoinder was more urgent and more focused: America’s crippling debt was an organizing theme, and there were warnings of “painful austerity measures” and a looming “day of reckoning.” But his remarks [. . .] were even more vague about the details of that reckoning than the president’s address. Ryan owes his prominence, in part, to his willingness to propose a very specific blueprint for addressing the entitlement system’s fiscal woes. But in his first big moment on the national stage, the words “Medicare” and “Social Security” did not pass the Wisconsin congressman’s lips. [. . .] It’s clear that both parties have decided that a period of divided government twelve months before a presidential election is the wrong time to make big moves on entitlements and the deficit.

"Deficit hawks" were AWOL when The Deal was made so they have little to complain about in this. There will be no cuts in Social Security (which as Yglesias notes, is pretty stupid to be considering right now anyway.) The Third Rail remains untouched.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on January 26, 2011 (boomark / email).