There is no crisis.

Everybody knows it. Even Buscho has backed off the crisis claim, turning increasingly to describing the "problem."

So, if there is no crisis, why are they so anxious to destroy Social Security? Paul Waldman explains it in plain terms at the Gadflyer...

Bush is trying to destroy Social Security because he knows that it is the keystone of progressive government - if it can be eliminated, the entire idea that we have mutual obligations to one another that can be satisfied through government will be dealt a mortal blow. But because he will fail, and because in failing he is offering tributes to the program, the fight will leave the progressive vision stronger than it was before.

There it is. Bush has to destroy Social Security because the success of Social Security gives lie to his entire juvenile "I got mine" philosophy. It's the bottom line. If we win this one, we do it on the basis of overwhelming agreement that our ideas are right, and theirs are wrong.

And since we're right, and they're wrong, we simply must win.