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Ramesh Ponnuru has a good piece up over at TCS, pointing out that Social Security has been a non-factor in this campaign. This should finally put to bed the idea that it is the third rail of American politics. When President Bush made the push for Social Security reform last year, Congressional Republicans surrendered without putting up a fight out of fear that Democrats would use the issue to bludgeon them in this election. I spoke with Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), one of the most outspoken proponents of privitization about this for an article I wrote for our November issue, and he said: "I think what we will find out is that we talked about Social Security, we discussed it in great detail, and I don't think it will affect one Congressional race...I was Mr. Social Security in my marginal district, in my 50-50 district, and my opponents don't even talk about the issue."

If the Democrats win control of the House, as expected, it's unlikely that there will be any type of serious entitlement reform in the next two years. But if Republicans find themselves in a better position after the 2008 election, they should move full speed ahead on entitlement reform, which is undoubtedly the most important domestic issue of our time.

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Social Security