Advanced Political SpinningBy James Hamilton

DC insiders often brag about their "spinning" techniques. You know, something bad happens or something good happens, and members of Congress, lobbyists, and their respective press secretaries go wild trying to put the event into its "proper" context. It can take a while to really master political spin. Once you get it down, though, there are all sorts of advanced techniques that take spinning to new levels. Case in point:

Starting late last year, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson began quietly reaching out to congressional Democrats to find ways to address Social Security's coming financial crisis. I actually witnessed one of these meetings when Paulson and incoming Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) sat down for dinner - just the two of them - at a trendy DC restaurant. I was close enough to their table to hear the term "Social Security" tossed back and forth quite a bit. And to hear Baucus chuckle that "personal accounts were a non-starter."

So... for the past few months, Democrats have been blaming Vice President Cheney and his comment to FOXNews that "We don't believe a tax increase is necessary" as the single event that derailed Paulson's efforts. The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post joined the Democrats earlier this week in repeating the spin. Somewhere, in some back office on Capitol Hill, Democratic staffers and their allies must be patting each other on the back.

Here's the truth: Democrats have repeatedly sideswiped any efforts to talk in a bipartisan way about the coming entitlement crisis. As I've mentioned in the last few days, they'd much rather talk about global warming - something that may or may not hit us hard in a couple of generations - than talk about giving working Americans (the very ones they claim to represent) the opportunity to have a more secure retirement.

Here's Max Baucus in a February 2007 press release: "I led the fight to defeat Social Security privatization in 2005, and I don't intend to let this bad idea back on the table."

Baucus has said that efforts to address Social Security's long-term solvency must focus on ideas that improve the program's fiscal health without raising taxes or cutting benefits. So what is his solution? What solutions do Speaker Pelosi, Ways and Means Chairman Rangel, or any other Democratic leader offer?

"     ."

That sound you hear is silence.

U.S. Comptroller General David Walker has called the coming entitlement crisis a "tsunami that will wreck the ship of state." Why are these Democrats doing nothing?