Kaput

"George W. Bush's plan to remake the Social Security system is kaput. This is not a value judgment. It's a statement of political fact."

So wrote Jacob Weisberg yesterday in Slate.

If Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., had any doubts that Weisberg was right, those doubts were quickly dispelled by the crowd of angry constituents at his townhall meeting last night. The News Journal's robin brown reports:

… when the subject turned to the idea of letting younger workers opt to put some of the tax money into individual savings accounts — a key part of reforms proposed by Castle's fellow Republican, President George W. Bush — Delaware's lone U.S. House member got an earful and an eyeful.

Many in the crowd of about 120 that overflowed a conference room at the Brandywine Hundred Library held large yellow and black signs blasting Bush's individual account plan.

Most of those with signs were members of a group called Delaware United to Protect Social Security, a coalition of organizations that banded together to oppose the Bush plan.

Group members urged Castle to denounce the accounts, which they said would cause drastic benefit cuts, cost trillions of dollars and explode the national debt.

Castle, who said the gathering was the largest of his town hall meetings in about a dozen years, told the crowd he has not "embraced or endorsed" any possible solution.

If President Bush wants to bring his Social Security roadshow to Delaware he'll likely find that Rep. Castle, due to a "scheduling conflict," will be unable to attend.