...Republicans say the fledgling [Social Security] debate has not started on the GOP's strongest ground. Instead of arguing whether younger workers should be allowed to invest their taxes in stocks and bonds, Washington is focusing on the size of the benefit cuts the White House is contemplating, congressional Republicans say.

"We are not prepared to answer" these questions, a senior House GOP leadership aide said of the benefit-cut ideas.

"They don't like the way the case is being laid out," said David C. John, a Social Security analyst at the Heritage Foundation who has close ties to the White House. "There's a feeling that they're leading with their chin." ...

--Washington Post

It's going over like a lead balloon, and the Republicans know it. I love it.

Heretofore, the White House has had a tendency to act as if everything it wants to do is essentially cost-free. But the Bushies know that fear helped them sell a war and fear helped them get them reelected, so now they're trying to use fear to sell this. It isn't working. They're scaring us with their own plan. If we're lucky, they'll never figure out their mistake.