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lapsedmodernistThus far we have a president who doesn't believe in the constitution, an attorney general who doesn't believe in the law, an EPA head that lies about scientific findings, an anti-gay fundamentalist on the Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, a FEMA head who doesn't respond to emergencies, a UN ambassador who doesn't think the UN should exist, so I guess it makes perfect sense that outspoken social security critic gets key role in administering it
How much damage can an ambassador to Belgium do? Probably not as much as an ardent antagonist of Social Security might unleash in a top policymaking position at the agency that millions of Americans depend on.
The stick-in-your-eye recess appointments the Bush administration made while the Senate was on its Easter break aren't a surprise. The president's undisguised disdain for Congress isn't exactly news. The headline-grabbing appointment was that of Sam Fox to be ambassador to Belgium — timed to avoid a vote and allow Fox to serve for the rest of President Bush's term.
Fox is a big Republican donor whose money helped support the deceitful Swift Boat Veterans for Truth's attacks on Democrat John Kerry's military record during the 2004 presidential campaign. After Kerry questioned Fox about this during a February hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the nomination was sinking and Bush withdrew it — only to put his man into the Brussels job after the Senate left town. It's a captivating show of high-stakes political retribution, so naturally the imbroglio got a breathless round of cable TV coverage.
But the Fox appointment doesn't have nearly the insidious potential to harm average Americans as the recess appointment of Andrew Biggs to be deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration. Biggs is more than just a proponent of Bush's failed proposal to change Social Security from a system of guaranteed government insurance to an investment vehicle dependent on individual savings. He is an architect of the libertarian project to undermine public confidence in Social Security to clear the way for dismantling it.
As Biggs sees it, Social Security is part of the broader "New Deal paradigm" of government supports for individuals that must be "overthrown." He has drawn a parallel to Margaret Thatcher's privatization of British industries, writing that Thatcher gave the British public an "incentive" to conclude for itself that state-run companies should be in private hands.
Likewise, Biggs wrote in a 1999 article, flagging public confidence in Social Security's financial outlook might help send this "liberal sacred cow to the slaughterhouse."
Biggs' antipathy toward Social Security is so deep that Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus — an economic moderate — refused to take up the nomination. Then Bush promoted him anyway (Biggs already was at the agency in a lesser job). Baucus said the public took Social Security privatization "off the table" by rejecting it unequivocally when Bush pushed it.
It's awfully hard to imagine that a Congress now controlled by Democrats — who resurrected their political fortunes in part by blocking Social Security privatization — would go along with a new private accounts scheme. But that doesn't make Biggs harmless. "You're putting a guy in as policy director who does not believe in social insurance," says Barbara Kennelly, president of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare and a former counsel to the Social Security commissioner during the Clinton administration. "He can undermine the program from within."
Wheeee!
How much damage can an ambassador to Belgium do? Probably not as much as an ardent antagonist of Social Security might unleash in a top policymaking position at the agency that millions of Americans depend on.
The stick-in-your-eye recess appointments the Bush administration made while the Senate was on its Easter break aren't a surprise. The president's undisguised disdain for Congress isn't exactly news. The headline-grabbing appointment was that of Sam Fox to be ambassador to Belgium — timed to avoid a vote and allow Fox to serve for the rest of President Bush's term.
Fox is a big Republican donor whose money helped support the deceitful Swift Boat Veterans for Truth's attacks on Democrat John Kerry's military record during the 2004 presidential campaign. After Kerry questioned Fox about this during a February hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the nomination was sinking and Bush withdrew it — only to put his man into the Brussels job after the Senate left town. It's a captivating show of high-stakes political retribution, so naturally the imbroglio got a breathless round of cable TV coverage.
But the Fox appointment doesn't have nearly the insidious potential to harm average Americans as the recess appointment of Andrew Biggs to be deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration. Biggs is more than just a proponent of Bush's failed proposal to change Social Security from a system of guaranteed government insurance to an investment vehicle dependent on individual savings. He is an architect of the libertarian project to undermine public confidence in Social Security to clear the way for dismantling it.
As Biggs sees it, Social Security is part of the broader "New Deal paradigm" of government supports for individuals that must be "overthrown." He has drawn a parallel to Margaret Thatcher's privatization of British industries, writing that Thatcher gave the British public an "incentive" to conclude for itself that state-run companies should be in private hands.
Likewise, Biggs wrote in a 1999 article, flagging public confidence in Social Security's financial outlook might help send this "liberal sacred cow to the slaughterhouse."
Biggs' antipathy toward Social Security is so deep that Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus — an economic moderate — refused to take up the nomination. Then Bush promoted him anyway (Biggs already was at the agency in a lesser job). Baucus said the public took Social Security privatization "off the table" by rejecting it unequivocally when Bush pushed it.
It's awfully hard to imagine that a Congress now controlled by Democrats — who resurrected their political fortunes in part by blocking Social Security privatization — would go along with a new private accounts scheme. But that doesn't make Biggs harmless. "You're putting a guy in as policy director who does not believe in social insurance," says Barbara Kennelly, president of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare and a former counsel to the Social Security commissioner during the Clinton administration. "He can undermine the program from within."
Wheeee!
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no subject
Date: 2007-04-12 02:50 am (UTC)Officially tomorrow.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-12 02:56 am (UTC)we are going away for a week in a few hours
we will be thinking of you.
be well
when we are back -- we'll call you
do not hesitate to call us any time for any reason or without - seems that the phones will be working
no subject
Date: 2007-04-12 02:58 am (UTC)where are you guys going?
schastlivogo puti, wherever it is, and horoshego vzleta i myagkoy posadki if you are flying.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-23 04:06 pm (UTC)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
no subject
Date: 2007-04-30 07:09 pm (UTC)a) had a spinal tap
b) learned to flip over on his side
c) first embraced then rejected both pacifier and swaddling.
went from looking like a froglet to looking like a gnome to looking like a human baby (sort of).
no subject
Date: 2007-04-30 07:16 pm (UTC)we would like to see if you are ok
no subject
Date: 2007-04-30 07:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-12 02:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-12 02:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-12 03:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-12 06:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-12 03:09 pm (UTC)