If people learned anything about George W. Bush in his first term, it’s that he isn’t afraid to think big. Those who love him admire his zeal; those who loathe him are terrified by it.
The mild overture he made to Democrats following his re-election last week hardly signaled a retreat from his aggressive style. It was an invitation to help him implement his party’s goals, not an offer to compromise them. But even in that light, the president has a rare and real opportunity to forge consensus and make historic progress on some difficult, long-standing issues.
Two of them: Social Security reform and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Social Security, as Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has warned repeatedly, cannot in its current form support the impending retirement of 77 million baby boomers. Major changes must be made, and they’ll be unpopular. Effective reform will have to include benefit cuts, at least for future retirees, and probably raising the age at which benefits kick in.
This scares politicians to death. Members of Congress fear having any support of benefit cuts come back to haunt them at election time. President Bush, with the mandate of a clear majority and no future election to worry about, can propose the tough medicine Greenspan has long recommended. Doing so now, while Congress’ next election isn’t yet front-of-mind, is imperative.
Some limited form of private investment, which Bush has advocated, has the force of last week’s vote behind it. The key, though, is reforming the system in a way that gives tomorrow’s retirees a clear and truthful picture of what they face so they can plan accordingly. Whether now or in a couple of decades, we will have to solve this problem. Doing so before it becomes a crisis allows it to be done more humanely.
In the Middle East, the distraction of the war in Iraq kept the Israeli-Palestinian peace process on the back burner of U.S. foreign policy. Now, with a leadership change coming to the Palestinian Authority, the president should seize the moment and reassert traditional U.S. leadership.
He would give the effort the high profile it deserves by naming a special envoy – someone with the cache of a James Baker, Sam Nunn or George Mitchell – to begin a new peace initiative. The beginning of the post-Yasser Arafat era, combined with the political capital Bush already has earned with his support of Israel, presents an opportunity that mustn’t be missed. For as laudable as Bush’s hopes for democracy in the Arab world are, they’ll won’t be realistic as long as Israelis and Palestinians remain at war.
Historic opportunities don’t often intersect with a leader who has the vision and political capital to take advantage of them. We hope this president realizes that.
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