One quibble though: “Yeah, ignoring a looming fiscal crisis and denying Americans the opportunity to have more control over their retirement is really something to be proud of.”

I agree that Democrats have nothing to be proud of on this issue, but you know full well that Social Security privatization does nothing by itself to address the looming mismatch between retirees and working taxpayers. I think it’s a fine idea as a way to avoid this problem in the long-term future and to give taxpayers more choice and control, but the Republicans were just using it as a way to obscure the short-term problem. Clearly, we can’t count on either the Republicans or Democrats to stand up to AARP and actually fix the problem.

I agree Bush’s healthcare proposal was laughable. He can’t even put together a basic tax reform/simplification proposal and we’re supposed to expect him to figure out healthcare, the most vexing policy issue out there?