The Center Cannot Hold

These are some recent quotes about Social Security "reform" from scholars at the Brookings Institute, a supposedly centrist think tank:

• Isabel Sawhill: "Democrats must accept the need to slow the growth of Social Security and Medicare benefits."
• Alice Rivlin: "[D]o we want to allow rapid growth in programs supporting seniors (including Social Security) to drive out spending for education or scientific research or improving infrastructure that might contribute more to future economic growth?"
• Henry Aaron: "Other proposals that would cut Social Security spending or otherwise help reduce deficits deserve consideration."

What we see here are people who are trying to stay in the middle. On their left are Democrats who essentially want to keep Social Security as is. On their right are Republicans who are searching for a way to end Social Security, either through privatizing it or by cutting its benefits enough so that public support for Social Security spirals downward. The problem is that there is no middle ground for the would-be centrists to stand upon. These centrists end up with the less dramatic Republican option of cutting benefits but this is still an option based upon the premise that Social Security must cease to exist, a premise that these centrists do not accept.