Good News, But…

According to the New York Times, Bush is backing away from his initial Social Security phase-out plan.

The Bush administration, facing opposition from Democrats and unease among Republicans over its plan to overhaul Social Security, is looking at new ideas for cutting future benefits that would hit wealthy retirees harder than those in the middle or bottom ranks of wage-earners, people involved in the discussions say.

This is good news, but this hardly marks the end of this fight. The White House is retooling its policy rhetoric, but it isn't going to give up.

But despite signs of reluctance from Capitol Hill, the White House remains confident that it can find a consensus on legislation that President Bush can sign into law, administration officials and advisers to Mr. Bush said.

People who have been briefed on White House discussions said the administration was striving to retain as much flexibility as possible both on legislative tactics and policy details. Deliberations are under way within the White House and between the White House and Republican leaders in Congress over how to proceed, they said, but there is no sense of panic or even surprise within the administration.

The most important thing the Democrats can do now is to hang tough. The unity that Democrats have shown in the face of Bush's crisis talk has been critical in forcing the White House to go back to the drawing board. Since the Democrats didn't collapse the first time around, expect Bush to try to sweeten the pot just enough for him to capture a few Democratic votes and claim bipartisan support. But all Democrats should know by now how the Republican legislative machine operates, and they shouldn't believe the hype. As Josh Marshall notes, we've seen what Bush really wants, and that alone renders any cooperation irresponsible and self-defeating.