I was there the first time Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham, the senior senator from South Carolina, sabotaged his party just when it seemed to be on the brink of achieving a major victory on behalf of conservative reform.
This particular moment came during a panel at the Heritage Foundation, following President Bush’s re-election victory over Sen. John Kerry in November 2004.
Bush won on a platform that included his pledge to push Congress to reform Social Security by giving every American the option of investing a percentage of his or her government retirement funds in a private account.
Social Security provides about on average about a 1 percent return on investment, compared with the historical average of around 7 percent for the stock market, so the Bush proposal promised a way of saving Social Security without either raising taxes or cutting benefits.
That terrible dilemma of raising taxes or cutting benefits has been a key factor in making Social Security the third rail of American politics for generations. Raising taxes angers people who are still working, while cutting benefits got the AARP and the National Committee to Preserve Social Security screaming for somebody’s scalp.
Bush had repeatedly expressed opposition to raising taxes as part of a Social Security reform. Most Republicans in the Senate and House agreed. But then along comes Graham speaking on a panel on Social Security reform with Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and another legislator whose name has become lost in time.
Out pops Graham with a declaration that “everything has to be on the table, including tax hikes.” After picking his jaw up off the carpeted floor, a Heritage colleague turned to me and said, anger clearly bubbling under his breath, “well, there goes Social Security reform.”
And sure enough, Graham had provided Democrats, the AARP, the mainstream media and all the usual suspects who always lobby for more government and higher taxes just the cover they needed to refocus the debate on the old paradigm.
Graham got the headlines for being “open-minded,” and Social Security reform got the shaft. Not coincidentally, Bush’s enthusiasm for waging a protracted struggle on the issue dissipated almost as quickly as Barack Obama changes positions.
I was reminded of this dark little moment in recent American political history after learning that Graham has done it again, this time signing on as one of five Republicans joining five Democrats in a “Gang of 10” offering a grand compromise on energy.
Besides Graham, the Gang of 10 includes Saxby Chambliss; R-Ga., John Thune, R-S.D.; Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn.
The Gang of 10 claims to be holding the middle ground that allows drilling in the outer continental shelf, as demanded by most House and Senate Republicans — and supports increased federal funding of alternative energy initiatives. Something for everybody and everybody gets to be for something.
But here’s the catch — the Gang of 10 only allows four states to opt out of the congressional ban on drilling in the continental shelf, which would otherwise remain in place, and bars drilling anywhere within 50 miles from either coast of Florida. Note that California, which experts say has most of the likely recoverable off-shore oil, is not one of the four.
Plus, the so-called compromise does nothing to remove the incredible environmental regulatory obstacles to drilling, nor to restrain the countless litigation opportunities available to anti-drilling activists.
What the Gang of 10 “compromise” does do is provide the perfect wink-wink out for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and other liberals who desperately need a way to appear to have changed their rock-solid opposition to drilling.
The wink-wink is that little if any new drilling will ever actually result from the bill and none of the environmental and regulatory obstacles to new energy production will be removed. Pelosi, Reid, Obama and company get to look reasonable, even as they keep Leviathan’s regulatory heel firmly planted on the throat of the American economy.
And it pulls the rug out from under Republicans who want American Energy Freedom Day –Oct. 1, when the legislative ban on continental shelf drilling expires — to actually mean something.
This is Republican-In-Name-Only (RINO) disease. The only way to fight such a disease is quarantine until the fever breaks and the victim returns to the real world.
