Punditocracy: Hearing What They Want To Hear

The Hotline's Marc Ambinder wins the coveted "Wanker of the Day" honor from Atrios today, after Ezra Klein called him out for "pat[ting Sen. Barack] Obama on the back for becoming 'the first top-tier Democratic presidential candidate to acknowledge that Social Security deficits could not, and would not, be solved without pain.'" -- when in fact, Social Security's finances are actually in decent shape.

Both Atrios and Klein properly whack Ambinder and his fellow pundits for ignoring the facts about Social Security in the name of touting "independence" and "causing pain for middle class voters."

But Ambinder deserves an extra whack for mischaracterizing Obama's comments. Here's the transcript from ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos that Ambinder cites:

STEPHANOPOULOS: You've also said that with Social Security, everything should be on the table.

OBAMA: Yes.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Raising the retirement age?

OBAMA: Everything should be on the table.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Raising payroll taxes?

OBAMA: Everything should be on the table. I think we should approach it the same way Tip O'Neill and Ronald Reagan did back in
1983. They came together. I don't want to lay out my preferences beforehand, but what I know is that Social Security is solvable. It is not as difficult a problem as we're going to have with Medicaid and Medicare.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Partial privatization?

OBAMA: Privatization is not something that I would consider, and
the reason is this: Social Security, I think, is -- that's the floor. That's the baseline. Social Security is that safety net that can't be frayed, and we shouldn't put at risk.

That is not preaching pain for Social Security. Ambinder's hearing what he wants to hear.

At worst, Obama's not preaching anything and being excessively coy, saying "everything is on the table" to maintain Social Security (though at least taking privatization off the table because it is antithetical to Social Security).

But he says "Social Security is solvable [and] is not as difficult a problem as we're going to have with Medicaid and Medicare" -- recognizing that the Medicare trust fund is in trouble because of skyrocketing health care costs, and indicating that he does not believe "pain" is necessary.

That leaves us waiting to hear what Obama will do on health care. Will he propose a universal health care plan that will drive down costs, or will he myopically follow Bush's lead and open the door for cruel cuts to Medicare?

A hopeful sign for comprehensive health care reform: Obama recently criticized the wasteful inefficient partial privatization of Medicare, signaling a rejection of reliance on private insurers to provide universal health care.

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