Failure to plan...

...according to a motivational chestnut, is planning to fail, and that notion colors my view of the debate over whether or not to put forward an alternative to the Bushco Social Security scam.

I think it's more a matter of when and what, rather than whether or not. It's certainly premature to lay out an alternative to a proposal that's currently ill-defined and apparently evolving. Whatever emerges will fall a bit short of our worst fears and will be offered as Bush's bid for a bi-partisan, "moderate" approach. A key feature, I suspect, will be raising the income limit subject to SS taxation.

That's our issue though, and we ought not give it up. In fact, it should be the centerpiece of any Democratic plan. This is a chance to make a stand for progressivity in taxation. Whatever lid the Administration proposes, Democrats should raise. Hell, I think we should rip the cap off altogether, but more "reasonable" voices will no doubt prevail.

Strengthen the solvency of Social Security by increasing (though hardly perfecting) progressivity in the taxation.

That's not the slogan, surely, but that's a plan we could work on once the corpse of privatization has been burned to ash and the ashes stomped into the ground.