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Is Social Security on the Chopping Block?

Not to get anyone too alarmed, but Ezra Klein’s 4:34 PM blog post offers some indication that Kent Conrad’s price for agreeing to give the American people the health care reform they voted for in 2008 was letting him mess around with cutting Social Security. Then in his 4:45 PM blog post we learn that in addition to Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt, the House Democrats will be sending Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Allen Boyd (D-FL) to represent them on the conference committee.

Boyd, if you think back to 2005, was the only Democrat to support privatizing Social Security, back when that was on the table. Lots of Blue Dogs in the House. One Blue Dog supported privatizing Social Security. And that’s who they picked.

Update:

To be clear, the Conference Committee isn’t going to privatize Social Security. But even though there are two more Democrats on the Committee than Republicans, two of the Democrats — Conrad and Boyd — want to mess around with Social Security. So you have a majority on hand to recommend some kind of funny business, presumably a commission.

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