Krugman and Social Security

Krugman had a piece today about privatizing Social Security. I commented, The amnesia of Republicans and Conservatives when it comes to this is actually a high water mark in their ability to forget what is painful and was just plain wrong. Talk to any of them about this and the gobbledegook you'll get from them is actually funny to behold. They have become, as far as I'm concerned, a bunch of joksters, not to be taken seriously for a time, but the damage they will do in holding up bills and obfuscating the forward-looking plans will be, I fear, considerable. Perhaps the Democrats will gather some courage and push back, but from people like Reid, Pelosi and the rest of them, I somehow doubt it. Maybe Obama will fight a battle at some point, but his concilatory stance at this point doesn't seem to lead down that path. The impetus behind pprivatization was, as many have pointed out, the 3% upfront commissions the Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns would have made, a virtual bonanza of money that probably wouldn't have kept them afloat anyhow, but oh what fun Bush and his cronies would have had, skimming the money off the top.