May I Assume Chafee Wants to Retire?

From CNN/wire services:

A centrist Republican senator who opposes President Bush's proposal of private investment accounts for Social Security is endorsing the president's call for a change in calculating benefits that would cut future checks for all but low-income workers.

Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, part of a group of moderates whose support both parties feel will be necessary to achieve any Social Security compromise, said Bush could boost his sales pitch -- and force Democrats into outlining plans of their own -- by dropping his talk of personal investment accounts.

"If you take private accounts off of the table, it kind of calls the opposition's bluff," Chafee said in an interview published in the Kent County Daily Times of West Warwick, Rhode Island.
Similarly, former President Clinton, who saw his administration's Social Security reform effort stall, urged Democrats to offer their own fix. To date, party leaders have said the program is solvent for the foreseeable future, so they will not discuss changes until Bush drops his private accounts proposal.

There are a couple of things to note here.

First, it's always struck me as rather warped and convoluted that the government would have to pay Social Security to everyone. A dear friend's mother - living in a million-dollar home (in a time when a million dollars was worth something) and with a portfolio rich with investments - couldn't wait until she got her first Social Security check, for example. So I don't have a huge problem in eliminating payout to the higher end of the spectrum.

HOWEVER. If we turn Social Security into nothing more than a welfare system, as parts of Bush's proposal suggest and as Chafee now endorses, we're just signing the program's death warrant. The only reason SS has survived this long is because of people like this dear friend's mother who don't NEED the check but very much want that check.

Also, I can understand why Clinton was quoted as saying Dems should offer their own fix. But what are we fixing? The Bushies tell us SS is hopelessly broken. But that isn't true. It needs some fine-tuning perhaps, but evidence suggests there is no immediate crisis nor is the program hopelessly broken. Contrary to the MSM, it's not that FDR and Company failed to plan for a time when Americans would live much longer; from what I've read, their formula for how long Americans would live by now was pretty much right on the mark.

So why do Dems need to offer a fix if they actually believe a repair is not needed?

Finally, let me add that I'm very sorry to see Chafee join this bandwagon. I've enjoyed him as one of the grand New England moderates. I think Chafee is more representative of average Republicans than powers like DeLay, Frist, and Bush and their rhetoric.

But he's signing his own death warrant here. I won't be happy to lose him in the Senate. But he made his choice.