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« Best blog post title | Main | The Ivory Tower » March 29, 2005The Right Splitting on Social Security?The Washington Post's Jonathan Weisman claims this in a large headline today: "Conservatives Splitting on Social Security." President Bush's proposal to add private investment accounts to Social Security is beginning to create controversy within the one group that has most forcefully embraced the idea in theory: the conservative intelligentsia.As evidence Weisman cites an American Enterprise Institute thinker and a handful of professors, including blogger Prof. Tyler Cowen. "Cowen and others" apparently are enough to support the notion that there are wide misgivings among "conservative intelligentsia." And all of this division is growing over a plan that hasn't even been outlined in specifics. Central to Weisman's claim is Harvard economist Robert Barro. But Barro's Business Week piece faults the President's plan because, in his view, it enlarges the Social Security program, and in the end people are just as reliant on government. That is the essence to Barro's criticism and that is apparently the position Prof. Cowen was endorsing as well. Weisman may ultimately be correct that conservative intellectuals are increasingly not happy with Bush's proposal but his article citing only a few offers little proof of it. Posted by Joshua Claybourn at March 29, 2005 12:48 AM CommentsSocial and religious conservatives have been dismayed at the President's emphasis on Social Security reform. The "neocon"/libertarian wing are the ones pushing for personal accounts, but even they ought to have serious misgivings. Posted by: Michael Meckler at March 29, 2005 11:12 AM | permalink Joshua, source quoting by name 3 conservative economics intellectuals (Alex J. Pollock, Robert J. Barro, and Tyler Cowan) represents considerable support for the reporter's lede that there are some cracks showing up in support for the President's plan amongst those thought previously to be rock solid. And having Kevin A. Hassett, another conservative intellectual , confirm the existence of this split by saying it isn't a surprise pretty much cements the point. If your point is to say that 3-4 conservative economist thinkers don't prove anything to you, fine, but most readers would reasonably say that by any normal journalistic standard, Weisman has more than adequately backed up his lede. |
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