McCain on Social Security

John McCain recently quipped, “Social Security is a disgrace.”  It was one of those regularly occurring political gaffes that make watching politics so much fun.  I would surmise that he is spinning this as, “what I meant to say was the way in which our government has handled the social security program is a disgrace.”  Only McCain knows, but that doesn’t bar us from analyzing his previous positions and current, written proposals for Social Security.  McCain has taken a vow to reform social security in his first term in office.  However, McCain is as vague about his proposed reforms as a candidate for president can be.  This is a quote from his recently published, 15 page Economic Plan, from page 5,

John McCain will fight to save the future of Social Security, and he believes that we may meet our obligations to the retirees of today and the future without raising taxes. John McCain supports supplementing the current Social Security system with personal accounts – but not as a substitute for addressing benefit promises that cannot be kept. John McCain will reach across the aisle to address these challenges, but if the Democrats do not act, he will. No problem is in more need of honesty than the looming financial challenges of entitlement programs.

A well crafted candidate communiqué.  What we know is that McCain realizes that there is a problem with Social Security, he will fix it without raising taxes, he will use personal accounts, he will work with Democrats.  He says he is coy on the issue, since the road to fixing Social Security is through compromise, and the only way to achieve compromise is through negotiations.  If you reveal your negotiating position before the cards are dealt, you can lose some bargaining power.  Fair enough, but this is standard political posturing.

What we get with McCain and Social Security is not prescriptive.  He simply offers us a method: compromise.  While not what we are looking for, this does not ring entirely empty coming from McCain.  In the past he has worked with Democrats on legislation for campaign finance, immigration and climate change.  The question of how this compromise will play out under McCain’s guidance is left unclear.