Bartleby the Democrat

The editors of the Washington Post are sufficiently disgusted by the Democrats’ posture in the social security debate to invoke Herman Melville’s memorable character Bartleby the Scrivener to describe it. The Democrats cannot support President Bush’s plan to empower individuals to take charge of some of the funds the government now deducts from their payroll. Nor do they have the courage to support some combination of tax increases and benefit cuts. This leaves them with nothing to utter on the subject except, in effect, Bartleby’s response — “At present I would prefer not to make any change at all.”